The surprise windfall tax move led to market turmoil on Tuesday.
“At the last cabinet meeting (on Monday) we approved many important measures,” Meloni said in a video message.
“The most important regards taxation of the unjust (profit) margins of the banks.
“The money will be used to finance measures to support families and businesses as they go through a difficult time due to the high cost of money.”
The Italian banks lost close to €9 billion in stock-market capitalisation on Tuesday after the government’s surprise announcement of the windfall tax.
They recouped around €4 billion in early trading on Wednesday after the economy and finance ministry said that the new tax it would be capped to 0.1 per cent of the institutes’ assets.
In the same video message, Meloni criticised the idea of bringing in a minimum wage in Italy, two days before talks with the opposition parties on their bill to introduce one.
“Why didn’t I accept the minimum-wage proposal as it is presented?” she said in a Facebook live broadcast in relation to the opposition’s bill for a minimum wage of nine euros an hour.
“Because if I set a law for a minimum figure for hourly pay for everyone, it would inevitably be in the middle.
“There is a danger it would become a substitute parameter, not an additional one, worsening many more salaries than the ones it improves”.
Riccardo Magi, secretary of the More Europe (Più Europa) party, said that he was wondering if it is worth going ahead with the meeting after Meloni “reiterated the rigidity of her position.
“If there’s the will to open up to our proposal then fine,” he said.
“Otherwise, we won’t gift this government a stage to be able to say ‘look how good we are’.
“If there’s a real desire for dialogue, Friday’s meeting is welcome.
“If it’s just total confrontation, we’re better off meeting in parliament to see who wants a minimum wage and who doesn’t.”
ANSA
