Business owners lash Italy’s Conte over lockdown exit plan
• Prime minister has pushed back against criticism that he has been excessively cautious as economy staggers
Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte is facing a growing revolt by Italian business and political rivals against his strategy for ending a nationwide lockdown that was eased for the first time on Monday.
Criticism of Conte’s recovery plans and anger among small businesses left out of the first phase of easing are percolating after almost two months of restrictions that hammered an already recession-bound economy. Pressure to speed up reopening is likely to increase after new deaths and infections blamed on the virus fell to the lowest level since the shutdown began on March 10.
Conte, a law professor who took office in 2018 during a populist rebellion against Italy’s political establishment, insisted on Sunday that the governing coalition was solid. He pushed back against criticism that he has been excessively cautious.
“There is disappointment among many economic operators,” Conte told La Stampa newspaper.
“I understand them. But to restart the economic cycle of goods and services that are less essential, we need customers to feel safe and protected.”
That is just one front for Conte. Former Italian premier Matteo Renzi, who leads a junior coalition party, renewed his threat to withdraw support for the government if Conte fails to tackle the economic fallout, according to an interview with Corriere della Sera.
The eurozone’s third-largest economy shrank 4.7% in the first quarter, the biggest drop since the series started in 1995.
With Italy still in the throes of Europe’s deadliest coronavirus outbreak, more than 4-million people were cleared to return to work on Monday.
The reopening includes icons of Italian industry such as Ferrari’s supercar factory in the town of Maranello and nearby competitor Lamborghini. Bars and restaurants cannot return to normal until the end of May, though eateries could start offering takeaways from yesterday.
Retailers and owners of small businesses rallied against the government’s policy in several cities last week. In Milan, several thousand operators of bars, restaurants, barber shops and other small businesses handed their store keys to local officials to protest insufficient government aid and being left out of the initial reopening.
The premier has come under fire from coalition allies and companies for excessive caution, a lack of clarity on reviving the economy and occasionally confusing rules on social distancing. Plans for an additional €55bn in emergency spending have been held up for weeks in his cabinet.
SPAIN PRESSURE
A cabinet meeting could be delayed until Thursday amid government division over the next stimulus measures, daily Il Messaggero reported. Conte’s office did not immediately reply to a request for comment on a possible delay.
Calls to lift a national lockdown and state of emergency are also surging in Spain, which has the most infections in Europe and the region’s secondhighest death toll. Like Italy, its tourism-dependent economy has been devastated and Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez is facing criticism over his exit strategy.
New virus deaths in Spain and France, where President Emmanuel Macron faces similar pressure, fell on Sunday to the lowest since at least March 22.
With the pandemic’s uneven human toll exposing Europe’s north-south divide, Conte’s setbacks leading up to Monday include his failure to persuade the continent’s German-led camp to back joint eurozone debt issuance for the recovery.
Italy’s first-quarter decline only captures the first days of the lockdown that eventually halted all nonessential activity on March 23. Italy forecasts the economy will shrink 8% in 2020, while Bloomberg Economics sees a 13% contraction.
Given the human toll, Italy appears particularly vulnerable as public calls for a return to normal life increase. But the UK, now free to chart its course outside the EU, is facing a similar situation as its death toll closes in on Italy’s. Another 315 fatalities reported on Sunday brought the total to 28,446.
While the UK is not set to unwind the lockdown and an Observer poll showed twothirds opposed lifting it, the government says the peak of the outbreak has passed. Prime Minister Boris Johnson — back at work after receiving intensivecare treatment for Covid-19 — is preparing guidance for the next steps of the crisis, including whether employees need to wear protective equipment and how transport should be used.
Italy’s 174 new deaths on Sunday increased the total to 28,884, the second-highest after the US.
Conte warned that reopening carries the risk of a spike in infections if people do not observe precautions.
“The more scrupulous we are, the sooner we will be able to regain other spaces of freedom,” he said in a Facebook post.
“We won’t squander what we have painstakingly achieved.”
SEVERAL THOUSAND OPERATORS OF BARS, RESTAURANTS, BARBER SHOPS AND OTHER BUSINESSES HANDED THEIR STORE KEYS TO OFFICIALS
GIVEN THE HUMAN TOLL, ITALY APPEARS PARTICULARLY VULNERABLE AS PUBLIC CALLS FOR A RETURN TO NORMAL LIFE INCREASE