The pirouettes of Pd, M5s and Lega on electricity and gas bills
Pd, M5s and even the League are against the government's decision to put an end to the protected market for electricity and gas, without extensions. Yet in the past they supported Draghi's "liberalizing" Pnrr
According to the secretary of the Democratic Party Elly Schlein, the end of the protected market for domestic electricity and gas supplies represents a "Meloni tax" on bills". Yet the free market – which companies have already entered since last April – has allowed small and medium-sized Italian businesses to save around 11 million euros on energy spending. And it can also enable consumers to choose the best offer for their needs, rather than aligning themselves with a price set by the authority (Arera).
CONTE AND SALVINI THINK LIKE SCHLEIN
Schlein's opinion on the free market is shared not only by other members of the opposition (such as the 5 Star Movement), but also by the government majority. According to Giuseppe Conte of the 5 Star Movement, "taking 12 million families from the protected market, bringing them to the free market, risks worsening the economic difficulties of these families", but it is not clear why: as Il Sole 24 Ore also recalled, “in 2022” – the year of the energy price crisis – “those in the free market with fixed prices paid less” than those in the protected market. Arera data says that in 2022 users on the free market paid an average energy price of 282 euros per megawatt hour, compared to 402 MWh for customers on the protected market.
Matteo Salvini, vice-president of the Council and minister of Infrastructure, would like the extension of the protected market, which however the government has excluded from the Energy Legislative Decree. “I am counting on dialogue to be able to remedy a mistake that we found on the table,” he said , referring to the transition to the free market. “Our political objective is the extension. We are negotiating with the European Commission to obtain it", said the leader of the League group in the Chamber, Riccardo Molinari, today.
WHY DO POLITICS HATE THE FREE MARKET?
If part of Italian public opinion and consequently also politics – regardless of the division between right and left – is generally hostile to the free energy market, it is also for a terminological reason. As the liberal economist Carlo Stagnaro wrote in Il Foglio , "one cannot fail to recognize the honor of arms to anyone who wanted to call 'greater protection' what in reality is an administered price, given that the truth of the numbers can do nothing against the strength of the name”.
DO PD, M5S AND LEAGUE DENY THEMSELVES?
In the article, Stagnaro also pointed out the paradox of this political clash – not only between the government and the opposition, but even within the executive itself – on the free market. It is in fact paradoxical, according to the economist of the Bruno Leoni Institute, that "the defense of liberalization falls to an exponent of the Brothers of Italy", namely the Minister of European Affairs and the PNRR Raffaele Fitto, member of the "only party that can say that he has no responsibility for this choice."
The Democratic Party, the League and even the 5 Star Movement oppose the end of the protected energy market. However, in the past they supported and voted – while Fratelli d'Italia was in opposition – the National Recovery and Resilience Plan drawn up by Mario Draghi's government, which has among its objectives precisely liberalization and competition (including in hydroelectric concessions , for example). Violating the PNRR would mean, for the government, going into conflict with Brussels and having problems with European funding.
“Either Pd, Lega & M5s have approved a 200 billion plan without understanding its contents”, concludes Stagnaro, “or they believe that voters can be fooled with impunity in a continuous war of positioning in which the substance of things is worse than irrelevant."
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/energia/pd-m5s-lega-fine-mercato-tutelato-bollette-luce-gas/ on Wed, 29 Nov 2023 14:31:10 +0000.