"We need to tackle a Budget Law that focuses on investment, development, the future, pension reform, and wage increases, so I couldn't care less about a fraction of a percentage point more or less." This was stated by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Transport and Infrastructure, Matteo Salvini, during a visit to InnoTrans, the international railway trade fair which opened today in Berlin. "Just as a ministry, I need 8 billion cash at the end of the year to pay for work already completed." Therefore, in the budget manoeuvre "it is clear that a budget deviation of billions is needed," the minister stressed.
"Today, journalist colleagues, and others, will be busy commenting on the 0.1. Because it is precisely due to the 0.1 that Italy is not exiting the so-called infringement procedure, and it is surreal that in 2026 the second largest industrial power in Europe should depend on mechanisms and logic of fractions of a percentage point to know whether it can or cannot invest in its future. This will not be what conditions our desire to invest and innovate," Salvini stressed.
"To pay for work already completed, in 2024, 2025 and 2026, we need at least 8 billion euros, so as not to halt construction sites," he continued. "So, with all due respect to some bureaucrat in Brussels who decides on fractions of a percentage point, I refuse to accept that companies do not have the liquidity to pay workers, engineers and suppliers. I fully intend to leave behind a connected, modern and safer country at the end of this term, but public works need vision, planning and funding."
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