Squinzi says pass Italian budget with no ‘dirty tricks’

(ANSA) – Milan, October 21 – Italy’s new budget, despite its shortcomings, should be moved quickly through parliament without any “dirty tricks,” the president of the country’s association of big business said Monday.

“There is great concern that in the transition from bill to law…(there may be)the usual dirty tricks…with which we have had extensive experience in the past,” said Squinzi, head of Confindustria.

“I hope that this does not happen,” Squinzi added. The budget bill features a 27.3-billion-euro adjustment in the public finances, including spending cuts over the 2014-2016 period, with about 11.6 billion euros of adjustments falling next year.

But Squinzi has been critical of the budget, which includes a plan for government privatizations to help reduce the public debt, while income and labour taxes are to be cut.

“The steps are in the right direction, but once again they are not enough to make us recover growth,” Squinzi said last week after the budget bill became public.