The premier used her address to Italy’s retailers association to set out her government’s economic priorities. She promised more tax cuts for middle earners, a crackdown on phantom businesses, and a defence of the high street against the online giants.
Speaking at the annual assembly of Confcommercio in Rome on Wednesday, Meloni confirmed that the government intends to go further on income tax cuts by reducing the second IRPEF band — covering earnings between €28,000 and €50,000 — from 35% to 33% in the 2026 budget law. “We don’t intend to stop; we want to do more to reduce the tax burden on the middle class,” she said.
The premier took an explicit swipe at opposition proposals for a wealth tax. “Others talk about taxing wealth, but we’re working to ensure that Italians can aspire to wealth after decades of sacrifice.”
Cracking down on ‘Apri e Chiudi’ fraud and addressing birth rate
Meloni also addressed the government’s measures against so-called Apri e Chiudi — “open and close” — businesses: shell enterprises that open, issue invoices for fictitious transactions, and dissolve before tax authorities can act. “This is not a banana republic, here the rules are respected. There is no market without rules,” she said.
The premier linked Italy’s declining birth rate and ageing population directly to economic policy, framing both as interconnected emergencies. “We have an emergency called the young generations — the ability to offer greater and further opportunities to the best energies we have, and, on the other hand, the need to reverse the demographic emergency, one of our greatest economic problems.”
A word for the shopkeeper
In remarks clearly calibrated for her audience, Meloni delivered an unambiguous defence of Italy’s independent retail sector against the encroachment of online platforms. “Your businesses are the fabric that keeps our regions, our villages, our cities and towns, even the smallest ones, alive,” she said. “Every raised shutter is a light, a reference point, a certainty — it is something that no online platform can ever replace.”
