Italy’s PM frontrunner says budget deficit 'last resort' to cut gas prices

By Giada Zampano

ROME (AA) – Italy’s government would only seek to expand the budget deficit as “a very last resort,” said the leader of Brothers of Italy Giorgia Meloni, frontrunner for prime minister after Sept. 25 elections, in the first electoral debate with center-left leader Enrico Letta.

Speaking on Monday evening during the only head-to-head confrontation – hosted by Italian daily Corriere della Sera – Meloni said her government would be ready to take “unilateral action” to decouple energy costs from gas prices, if the EU does not succeed in a joint effort.

Spiking gas prices – linked to the cut of Russian supplies following the Ukrainian war – sent Europe’s energy costs up to record levels, weighing on Italian businesses and families.

“Borrowing 30, 40, 50 billion euros without a cap on energy prices and without decoupling the market would be giving money to speculators,” Meloni said during the debate, which focused on the energy crisis and its consequences for citizens and firms.

Letta agreed with Meloni on decoupling energy costs, but added that he would support adopting controlled prices.

“When the market doesn’t work and a meteorite strikes, you need to intervene,” he said.

Meloni leads the center-right coalition – including Matteo Salvini’s right-wing League and Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia party – which is seen widely ahead in the latest pools and is set to win a parliamentary majority in the forthcoming vote.

The center-left coalition led by Letta is struggling to win wide-enough electoral support after two centrist parties boycotted the leftist alliance and decided to run alone.