This is an ancient battle. A flag for Giorgia Meloni, raised during endless speeches in Parliament, from the opposition benches. Gold reserves? Belongs to the State and the Italian “people”. The center-right group threw their hats in the ringgold deposited by the Bank of Italy. He wanted to emphasize that the keys to the 2,500-ton yellow metal coffin must remain in the hands of the state. It’s all written in black and white in the amendments made by the Italian Brothers to the Budget tabled last Friday.
CHANGE
One line: «The gold reserves managed and held by the Bank of Italy belong to the State, in the name of the Italian people». This amendment was the only one signed by the head of the FdI group in the Senate, Lucio Malan. This responded to the specific wishes of the prime minister, who discussed the issue with his party and personally gave the green light. Meloni has been asking for legislation for years to dispel doubts: the hoards of gold bullion that make up Italy’s central bank reserves, in Italy and abroad, are in the exclusive ownership of the Italian State. Therefore, who, at least on paper, can decide what to do with it.
Malan’s amendment, unsurprisingly placed at the top of the party’s via della Scrofa dossier and perhaps destined to be part of the “reported,” gave new life to the conservative leader’s old annoyance. This comes a few days after the criticism leveled by the institute led by Fabio Panetta di Manovra, with very stringent findings from its research office, especially regarding Irpef cuts which – this is the interpretation of the technicians – risk benefiting only the richest groups.
The survey was met with some annoyance, to put it mildly, on the upper floors of Via della Scrofa. But let’s get back to the Melonian moves in the Senate. What does the amendment essentially provide? “It establishes a principle” explain those who have followed the document closely, “namely that the gold reserves of the Bank of Italy belong to the Italian State and these are not the details, given the hybrid nature that the institution assumed during the years after it was reformed”. The stakes are huge. In fact, one of the largest gold reserves in the world is located in central bank coffers. Some updated figures: 2452 tonnes, with a value of over two hundred billion euros, with metal prices continuing to skyrocket. This is a treasure that has always tempted politicians and those who sit in the control room at Palazzo Chigi. Could the gold be used, for example, to reduce public debt? Or as collateral for loans, even to finance state spending? Questions that have arisen for more than twenty years from one administration to another. Meloni has always demanded a “certificate of ownership” of the country’s gold reserves for at least ten years. January 2014, Letta government. The leader of the Italian Brotherhood wore his helmet in the Council and asked the executive to vote on the Bank of Italy’s gold reserve agenda. “This is the only guarantee and relative wealth left for the Italian people, one of the few guarantees we have to protect our autonomy and independence,” he shouted in increasingly harsh tones. «It is important to clarify something that everyone knows: whatever the size of Bankitalia’s capital, it is clear that these gold reserves remain the property of the Italian people». He would return there several times, along with party veteran Giovanbattista Fazzolari.
FROM PRODI TO CONTE
The final attack with the yellow-green government, Conte uno. When the strange Lega-Five Star-FdI axis united behind Northern League member Claudio Borghi’s law establishing Italian State ownership of gold reserves. The Minister of Economy at that time, Giovanni Tria, had to explain that these reserves should not actually be touched. They cannot be demobilized or sold to raise cash and finance expenses without taking huge risks in financial markets. Not to mention the price of gold, with Italian reserves on sale, is likely to fall soon.
The fact is that the gold bullion policy offer by central banks is transversal and certainly nothing new. In 2004 Giulio Tremonti, then Berlusconi’s government account holder and now an Italian Brotherhood senator, tried to propose selling some of the reserves. Suffered a very harsh termination from former governor Antonio Fazio. After him, it was Romano Prodi’s turn, with the opening of a partial placement of gold “treasures” on the market, and this time it was the European Central Bank who opposed it. Now the comeback and blitz by Fratelli d’Italia in Manovra. Italian Bank Reserves? «They belong to the State, in the name of the Italian People».
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