It is a race against time to approve the 2022 budget law. The bill must get the green light from the parliament by the December 31st, otherwise the provisional exercise is triggered. The text is still under discussion in the Budget Committee, and for the moment its arrival in the Senate is expected for December 19. Then the text should arrive armored in the House on December 21, to get the definitive go by by Christmas. But the constant contrasts in the majority leave more than a doubt on this calendar, and the final okay could only arrive under New Year’s Eve, an eventuality registered in the second republic only on three occasions (2004, 2018 and 2020).
Recent cases from 2018 and 2020
Already last year, in 2020, with the Conte 2 (majority M5S-Pd-Leu) the definitive go-ahead for the maneuver arrived from the Senate on 30 December. While the year before, always the Count 2, he had managed to avoid the danger by a hair, at least approving the budget law on Christmas Eve. However the year before, in 2018, with the government Lega-M5s, the long-awaited and suffered go-ahead for the maneuver came on December 30, a breath away from the provisional exercise: a budget law deeply corrected to meet the EU and not run into the infringement procedure.
The case of the 2004 maneuver
In 2004, with Minister of Economy and Finance Domenico Siniscalco (Berlusconi government-II), the maneuver was definitively approved on 29 December. It was a very troubled parliamentary process. The first government text reached the House on 30 September. The bill was then abolished to give life to a “bis text” fired by Montecitorio on 17 November. Where, anomalous case, it was modified again after the approval of the Senate (December 16), to receive the second green light on December 28. The final ok arrived the next day from Palazzo Madama.