#Italy needs €50 billion budget for 'shock' stimulus - #Salvini

Salvini pulled the plug on the League’s coalition government with the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement earlier this month, starting a potential countdown to elections which could complicate the nation’s preparations for the 2020 budget.

Italy, which has the biggest debt in proportion to its output in the eurozone after Greece, has promised the European Commission to raise €23bn by hiking sales taxes from 1 January in order to comply with EU deficit rules.

Salvini, who serves as deputy prime minister and interior minister, said that not only must Italy avoid the programmed tax increase but it needed significant tax cuts.

“We face a €50bn budget. It is not enough for me that we do not hike sales taxes. We must start to cut taxes,” Salvini told Radio 24.

“Are we ready to bring about this fiscal stimulus shock? We need a government able to do things, not a government that simply gets by.”

Salvini’s comments come a few hours before Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte was due to address parliament over the ongoing political crisis.

Conte, who is an academic close to the 5-Star, is expected to hand in his resignation to President Sergio Mattarella later in the day.

Asked whether he might change his mind and reconcile with his government partner, Salvini said he wanted to listen to Conte’s speech “before saying yes or no”.