The previous, center-left government had proposed a budget with a 0.8 percent deficit, which would have allowed Italy to continue chipping away at its total debt.
Establishment forces inside the government, including Economics Minister Giovanni Tria, sought to shrink the proposed deficit level but were outmaneuvered by the populists. At one point, a member of the League shut off Mr. Tria’s microphone to keep him from talking about the budget.
But the major pressure on Italy’s budget has come from outside Italy. Fitch Ratings issued a negative evaluation of the budget, and Moody’s dropped its rating for Italian bonds to one level above “junk” last week.
As the spreads rose, Pierre Moscovici, the European commissioner in charge of economic and fiscal affairs, provoked the government’s rage when he said Italians had chosen a xenophobic government.
As Mr. Moscovici left the news conference on Tuesday, a member of the European Parliament with the League party, Angelo Ciocca, snatched the commissioner’s papers and pounded them with his shoe, which he later wrote on Twitter, was “made in Italy.”
Italy’s leaders have responded less than diplomatically in other ways, too. After the European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker compared Italy’s situation to the Greek crisis, Mr. Salvini portrayed him as a drunk, saying he only talked with “sober people.’’
Top members of the Five Star echoed that critique, calling the European leaders “slaves of alcohol.” Beppe Grillo, the movement’s co-founder, wrote on his blog last week that he suspected Mr. Junker of having neurological problems, and featured a picture of him looking unwell.
Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/23/world/europe/italy-budget-eu.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
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