Italian social conservative firebrand Giorgia Meloni, leader of the Brother of Italy (FdI), has promised to cut taxes as her party remains the most popular ahead of next month’s national elections.
Ms Meloni, who appeared at a campaign event alongside former European Parliament president Antonio Tajani, has promised radical tax reforms that would favour households with larger families, presumably to combat Italy’s demographic decline without resorting to mass immigration.
“FdI has always proposed a radical paradigm shift in the tax system, so that income taxation takes into account the composition and characteristics of families, with the introduction of the so-called family quotient,” Meloni said.
“In essence, the larger the family, the less taxes you pay,” she added, according to Il Giornale reporting.
“It is a legislative objective, but right from the start, we intend to make an immediate tangible contribution to all families. We will increase the single allowance by 50 per cent, which in this way will reach a maximum of 260 euros per month per child,” she explained.
Ms Meloni could likely be Italy’s next prime minister — and first female head of government — but some have questioned whether a Meloni government would act on social issues such as abortion.
Antonio Tajani, a member of Forza Italia which forms part of the centre-right coalition of parties that includes the Brothers of Italy and populist Matteo Salvini’s League, stated that they would not change Italy’s abortion laws, but would do more to help women who do not want to have an abortion but feel pressured to.
Meloni’s political opponents have tried to raise alarm bells about a possible right-wing coalition government, including current Foreign Minister Luigi di Maio of the left-populist Five Star Movement (M5S) — once the largest political force in Italy, but now polling in a distant fourth place.
“The League has a pact with United Russia and, if the right were to go to the government, it will take us into Putin’s arms,” Di Maio alleged, noting Salvini’s prior friendly relations with the party of Russian president Vladimir Putin.
“The risk for the country is the detachment from historical alliances, isolation and loss of freedom, not only at an economic level,” Di Maio added.
However, while Salvini has had friendly relations with Putin’s party in the past, Giorgia Meloni has been clear in her support of Ukraine during the ongoing conflict between Kyiv and Moscow several times.
“Ukraine … is the tip of the iceberg of a conflict whose objective is the revision of the world order. Russia is louder at present and China is quieter, but its penetration is reaching everywhere,” Meloni said in an interview with Reuters this week.