page_title: Giuseppe Conte
section_title: Economic policies
hierarchical_section_title: Giuseppe Conte / Policies / Economic policies
caption_attribution_description: 🇮🇹 Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte just arrived at the European Parliament to present his vision on the #FutureofEurope and debate with members, EP Presdient Tajani, Council and Commission! Watch it here from 17:00 CET &lt;a href="http://www.europarl.europa.eu/plenary/en/home.html" rel="noreferrer nofollow"&gt;www.europarl.europa.eu/plenary/en/home.html&lt;/a&gt; This photo is free to use under Creative Commons license CC-BY-4.0 and must be credited: &quot;CC-BY-4.0: © European Union 20XY – Source: EP&quot;. (&lt;a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/" rel="noreferrer nofollow"&gt;creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/&lt;/a&gt;) No model release form if applicable. For bigger HR files please contact: webcom-flickr(AT)europarl.europa.eu
context_page_description: Giuseppe Conte is an Italian university professor, jurist and politician, who is serving as the 58th Prime Minister of Italy since June 2018.
  Conte spent the majority of his career as a law professor and was also a member of the Italian Bureau of Administrative Justice. Following the 2018 general election, he was proposed as the independent leader of a coalition government between the Five Star Movement and the League, despite his very low popularity. After both parties agreed on a government program, he was sworn in as Prime Minister on 1 June by President Sergio Mattarella, appointing the M5S and League leaders as his deputies.
  On 20 August 2019, Conte offered to resign as Prime Minister when the League filed a motion of no confidence in the coalition government. Subsequently, the M5S and the centre-left Democratic Party agreed to form a new government, with Conte remaining as its head. In the process, Conte became the first Italian Prime Minister to lead separate governments with both right-wing and left-wing coalition partners.
context_section_description: One of Conte's main proposals was the scheduled reform of the Italian tax system, mainly promoted by the League and characterized by the introduction of flat taxes for businesses and individuals, with a no-tax area for low-income households and some small corrections to keep some degree of tax progression as required by the Italian Constitution. The government stressed that they will find the funds to implement it through the so-called "fiscal peace", that is a condonation. However, many important economists and newspapers like Il Sole 24 Ore denounced that the condonation could not finance all the new tax system based on flat tax.
  In 2018, Conte's first government, introduced a flat tax with a 15% rate, applied to small entrepreneurs and self-employed with an amount of annual revenues inferior to €65,000. Despite the so-called "flat regime" was a proposal of the right-wing League, it was confirmed also by Conte's second government, with the centre-left.
  During his first cabinet, his government rolled out the so-called "citizens' income" (Italian: reddito di cittadinanza), a system of social welfare provision that provides a basic income and assistance in finding a job in order to help poor people and families. The income was set to a maximum of €780 per month, and in its first year the program has almost 2.7 million applications. The bill was later confirmed by Conte's second cabinet.
  During Conte's governments, more severe punishments for tax dodgers, which are a major problem in Italy, had been approved. With the 2020 financial bill, the government introduced a bill which provided prison for "great tax dodgers".
  In September 2019, at the head of his second government, Conte launched the so-called "Green New Deal", named after the analogous US proposed legislation that aimed to address climate change and economic inequality. In the same period, he praised students who protested against climate change, stating: "The images of the squares of the Fridays for Future are extraordinary, with so many young people participating with such passion. From the government there is the utmost commitment to translate this request for change into concrete solutions. We all have a great responsibility."
  In January 2020, the cabinet increased to €100 per month the so-called "Renzi bonus", a monthly allowance introduced by Matteo Renzi's government in 2014, recognized to holders of a total annual income not exceeding €24,600. A total of 11.7 million people benefited of the bonus in 2020.
  In February 2020, Conte appointed Mariana Mazzucato as his economic counselor. Mazzucato, a professor at the University College London, is considered one of the most prominent supporter of state intervensionism.
  In April 2020, amid the coronavirus pandemic which severely affected Europe, Conte became the most vocal supporter of the eurobonds' issuance to face the crisis, describing the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) as "completely inadequate". Conte found key allies in France, Spain, Belgium, Ireland, Portugal, Greece, Slovenia and Luxembourg, which demanded more to be done in relation to coronavirus pandemic; while Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, Finland and Estonia strongly opposed the eurobonds. Conte, during an interview to German weekly Die Zeit, questioned: "What do we want to do in Europe? Does each member state want to go its own way?", he also added: "If we are a union, now is the time to prove it." On 8 April, he stated "we should loosened European fiscal rules, otherwise we would have to cancel Europe and everyone will do on their own." On 23 April, the European Council agreed on a ESM without conditionality to sustain direct and indirect healthcare costs and the implementation of the so-called recovery fund to help the reconstruction.
  On 13 May, the Council of Ministers approved the so-called "Relaunch decree", with a budget of nearly €55 billion. The decree included an "emergency income" of €400 to €800 for lower-income families, a bonus of €600 to €1,000 to self-employed workers, a reduction of €4 billion in taxes for all businesses w
caption: Conte at the European Parliament
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