Never as in these days of war in Ukraine, the West is proving to be compact and cohesive in the extremely difficult attempt to stem the Russian attack on Kiev. We are witnessing a great team game, between the United States and Europe, to try and win Putin’s weapons before it is too late with a nuclear recourse. Since the conflict broke out over a month ago, the weapon of sanctions against Moscow has already been used several times as aid to the Ukrainian people has multiplied. At this point, after the repeated crackdowns, there is a great risk that the situation will get out of hand for everyone if peace is not quickly reached. It is no coincidence that many observers are wondering how far one can push the foot on the accelerator of retaliatory measures.
The risk of the white flag
In recent days, speaking to Montecitorio immediately after Zalensky’s intervention, Prime Minister Draghi has been very clear: the road to sanctions is increasingly obligatory. But today we are forced to navigate between the crackdown on Moscow (with also the increase in our military spending) and the boomerang effect of sanctions, as demonstrated by Putin’s latest stance that wants us to pay for imports in rubles. from Russia of gas. It is no coincidence that Draghi himself also hinted at the need to resort to rationing: a real war economy. At this rate – between skyrocketing bills and gasoline prices, super-high prices for so many scarce food products and energy dependence on Moscow – we really risk hoisting the white flag too.
Aid (which is missing) on electricity
To prevent this from happening, the Super Mario government is playing an increasingly difficult game: it must play attacking but, at the same time, avoid suffering a sensational own goal. A particularly difficult task because Italy is forced to endure the contraindications of the “disqualification” of Putin more than many other partners. We have already talked about gas, which, at least until yesterday, we imported for almost 50% from Moscow and the surrounding area, but the discourse is, in fact, also valid for electricity because, in this field, our government has not yet Appropriate aid has been launched unlike what happens in France where Macron has limited the increases in bills for families and businesses to 4%. In Italy we have so far reduced (and only for a month) the prices of gasoline: for the rest, very little.
The budget variance hypothesis
We ask ourselves: how many own goals do we risk to collect at this point? The most sensational own-goal in the history of Italian football was perhaps the one attributed to an ace of the ball like Franco Baresi, champion of Milan. We now hope that another champion who responds to the name of Draghi will not have to collect another bad own goal: it would have devastating consequences for all the “made in Italy”. And, just to avoid such an injury, Super Mario now seems more open to a budget shift, in order to meet the needs of families, but the game is still long.