Italy’s former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi announced his “last great electoral and political battle” yesterday with a sweeping promise to cut taxes and the cost of government if his centre-right wins elections this month.
In a passionate and much anticipated speech to supporters in Milan, the city where he built his fortune, he said only his centre-right could lift Italy out of the dark fog of recession and re-establish trust between Government and citizens.
His political opponents were quick to deride him. Caretaker Prime Minister Mario Monti said Berlusconi “has never kept any of his promises” and one centre-left parliamentarian called the speech “a laundry list of stupidities”.
The centrepiece of Berlusconi’s fiery speech was the unveiling of what he had billed beforehand as a “shock proposal” – a promise to reimburse Italian families for a much-hated tax on their primary residences.
That tax, known as IMU, was imposed last year by Monti’s technocrat government to help with Italy’s financial crisis, after it had been abolished in 2008 by Berlusconi.
The master communicator peppered his speech with repetitions of the words “tax”, “taxpayer” and “tax man” along with references to “the anxiety of families”.
He said he would scrap the tax at his first Cabinet meeting and refund payments already made.
He promised a centre-right government would eliminate a regional tax on businesses over the course of five years, reduce personal income tax rates, would not increase VAT and would not impose a so-called “wealth tax” on higher earners.
Berlusconi said revenue to cover the elimination of the real estate tax on primary residences would come in part from striking a deal with Switzerland to tax financial activities there by Italian citizens.
He also promised a number of measures to cut the cost of government, to halve the number of parliamentarians, to cut government waste, and to eliminate public financing of political parties.
“I have nothing to ask for myself,” said Berlusconi, 76, one of Italy’s richest men.
“I want to fight one last great electoral and political battle.”
Gianfranco Fini, the speaker of the lower house of parliament who broke with Berlusconi in 2010, tweeted that in his second Cabinet meeting, Berlusconi would “decree that everyone wins the lottery”.
One candidate running for Monti’s centrist group called the speech tantamount to “vote-buying”, and Rosy Bindi, president of the centre-left Democratic Party, slammed it as “dangerous electoral propaganda”.