Meloni uses high energy price as an excuse to attack the Green Deal

The Meloni government has taken sides in a battle between factions of capitalism – the fossil fuel wing and the “green” wing.

On the issue of soaring fuel prices, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni reiterated her stance in Parliament on Wednesday: a line that is contributing to the impoverishment of families and businesses. 

Sooner or later, the government hopes, the war waged by its “American friend” Donald Trump and his Israeli allies against Iran will come to an end. In the meantime, the government will continue to talk about “monitoring” price trends rather than immediately blocking the hikes. She promised there will be a crackdown on speculation, but without specifying whether and how taxation will be used against multinationals, nor naming any names of companies that have jacked up fuel prices.

Ahead of the European Council meeting on March 19 and 20, the most interesting political takeaway from Meloni's otherwise low-profile address was her attack on the pillar of the “Green Deal”: the European Emissions Trading System (ETS), which aims to slash carbon emissions across Europe.

Meloni wants to suspend and dismantle the ETS because, according to her, it artificially inflates the price of electricity. For Italy, she said, this translates to spikes of €30 per........

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