Giorgetti testifies on budget bill, Forza Italia and Lega renew their demands

The parliamentary examination of the 2026 budget bill began today, with Minister of Economy Giancarlo Giorgetti testifying before the joint Budget Committees of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate on the Public Finance Planning Document. Giorgetti was heard in the afternoon; examination of the actual Budget Document is scheduled for tomorrow.

The news currently comes from a single source (Quotidiano Nazionale); no independent confirmation is currently available on further details of the hearing.

Within the majority, the parties’ demands remain the ones already known: Forza Italia is insisting on tax exemption for the thirteenth-month salary payment, while Lega is pushing for pensions at 64. These are claims that have accompanied the budget discussion for weeks and today once again confront the figures put on the table by the Treasury chief.

Three dossiers are intertwined at this stage: the clause for energy and defense, the demand linked to inflation trends, and the parliamentary vote on the budget deviation needed to fund the measures. The first and third items concern the same figure, 28.8 billion euros, while the demand on inflation does not yet have a defined amount or formal approval.

This interconnection explains why today’s hearing is a crucial step rather than a mere formality: the minister must explain how additional spending requests — thirteenth-month pay, pensions — can be reconciled with public finance constraints tied to clauses that, numerically, weigh in at tens of billions. The issue of the budget deviation, in particular, requires a dedicated parliamentary passage that currently does not appear to have been scheduled with a precise amount.

In the coming days, the examination will continue in committee, with discussions between the majority parties’ demands and the public finance framework presented by the government. The 28.8 billion euro issue tied to energy, defense and the budget deviation remains the point on which the resilience of the budget bill will be tested in the coming weeks.