Populist Senator Matteo Salvini’s League, along with their allies Forza Italia, has called on the Italian government to suspend taxes in areas under lockdown to save local businesses.
The two parties have called on the left-wing coalition government of Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte to freeze tax collection in areas declared as “red zones,” which are seeing the strictest lockdown measures enacted to stop the spread of the Wuhan virus.
League MP Paolo Grimoldi noted that the government had suspended taxes for businesses and individuals in February during the first wave of infection and called for similar measures to be taken for the entire region of Lombardy, Il Giornale reports.
“As was done in February it must be done again today and must be done immediately,” Grimoldi said, adding: “It is easy, Minister Gualtieri only has to redo the February decree, adapting it to the whole of Lombardy.”
Gianluca Comazzi, a member of former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia, agreed with the proposal, saying he would table a motion in the Lombardy Regional Council to implement tax relief.
“Our region has faced this tragedy with dignity and courage, now we expect concrete help,” Comazzi said.
Forza Italia MP Mariastella Gelmini has also called for other regions facing lockdown to have their taxes frozen, saying: “To those who cannot work the state must not ask for a euro of taxes.”
An estimated 16 million people are set to be affected by the new lockdown measures with deaths from the coronavirus totalling nearly 450 on Thursday and the country seeing over 34,500 new cases of the disease.
As lockdowns are implemented for Italian citizens, however, the country still sees continued landings of migrants in areas like the island of Lampedusa.
League leader Matteo Salvini spoke out about the double standard for migrants on Monday, saying the lockdown edicts of the government “do not apply” to migrants coming into the country illegally.