{"id":468689,"date":"2026-10-20T19:28:15","date_gmt":"2026-10-20T17:28:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2026\/10\/20\/le-proteste-contro-il-caro-vita-accendono-lo-scontro-a-strasburgo-sulle-risposte-di-italia-e-ue\/"},"modified":"2026-10-20T19:55:46","modified_gmt":"2026-10-20T17:55:46","slug":"protests-against-the-high-cost-of-living-spark-a-clash-in-strasbourg-over-the-responses-from-italy-and-the-eu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2026\/10\/20\/protests-against-the-high-cost-of-living-spark-a-clash-in-strasbourg-over-the-responses-from-italy-and-the-eu\/","title":{"rendered":"Protests against the high cost of living spark a clash in Strasbourg over the responses from Italy and the EU"},"content":{"rendered":"

From our correspondent in Strasbourg<\/em> – <\/span>From taxing the windfall profits<\/b><\/a> of energy companies to flexibility on budgetary constraints, right through to security and the condemnation of street violence: Italian MEPs are divided over how to respond to the protests against high fuel prices<\/b> and the cost of living, which are affecting the South in particular, with farmers and hauliers struggling with costs that are becoming increasingly difficult to bear. While the Five Star Movement, the Democratic Party, and the Green and Left Alliance<\/strong> are calling for the redistribution of energy profits and increased aid, Forza Italia<\/strong> is focusing on Member States\u2019 spending margins, and Fratelli d\u2019Italia<\/strong> is insisting on public order. In Strasbourg \u2013 where all MEPs are gathered for the European Parliament\u2019s plenary session \u2013 the debate on the economic reasons behind the protests is intertwined with that on how to manage the demonstrations. <\/span><\/p>\n

“The Meloni government is currently failing to provide any answers. In fact, it is turning a blind eye,” says the Five Star Movement MEP, Valentina Palmisano,<\/strong> who claims that people “are being squeezed by the high cost of living and high fuel prices” and “can no longer cope with the demands of daily life.” The call is to \u201ctax the windfall profits of oil and energy companies\u201d and redistribute them to families in difficulty. Her delegation colleague, Pasquale Tridico<\/strong>, <\/strong><\/span>presses the issue, proposing a European tax credit on diesel for farmers and hauliers, funded through a levy on windfall profits. \u201cOver the last five months, additional diesel costs have risen by 30 per cent for the same number of litres used,\u201d he explains, calling for at least 30 per cent of fuel costs to be covered. <\/span><\/p>\n

The Italian Green and Left Alliance (AVS) is also calling for the taxation of windfall profits.<\/strong> \u201cHalf of Italy has ground to a halt. Yes, the whole of the south \u2013 lorry drivers, farmers, bakers: everyone is on strike. Prices are sky-high, with diesel over \u20ac2.30, even though ENI is making astronomical profits, and the shelves are completely empty,\u201d MEP Benedetta Scuderi (Greens)<\/strong> explained in the Chamber. \u201cSomeone is making a profit, and in Italy that someone is ENI, and those profits are not being taxed so they can be redistributed,\u201d Scuderi added to Eunews<\/em>. \u201cThe aid being provided is across-the-board and not targeted, and we are not really trying to support those in our population who need it most,\u201d she observes. \u201cOur billions must be spent on security, yes, but on the security of our people,\u201d with a European budget that is more socially oriented and less focused on rearmament. <\/span><\/p>\n

It is on the issue of security that the debate and clash between the government and the opposition have flared up, with the Fratelli d\u2019Italia MEP Paolo Inselvini<\/strong> pressing Scuderi. \u201cWhose side are you on? That of the police, or that of those who, with their faces covered, are wreaking havoc in our cities?\u201d asks the MEP, accusing Scuderi \u2013 who, in her speech, had raised the issue of tear gas canisters being fired at head height \u2013 of having \u201ccondemned the violence of the protesters,\u201d but of having \u201cimmediately shifted the focus to alleged excesses by the police.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Forza Italia MEP Marco Falcone<\/strong> focuses on the issue of protests and their causes, arguing that \u201cMember States themselves must be allowed to implement appropriate measures to bring down the cost of living.\u201d To this end, he is calling for \u201can easing of budgetary constraints\u201d to support households and businesses. Falcone, a member of the People\u2019s Party, points out that this period of hardship is not limited to Italy, but \u201cis widespread\u201d and affecting the whole of Europe. <\/span><\/p>\n

Finally, the Democratic Party accuses the government of failing to act and criticises the lack of responses from Giorgia Meloni\u2019s administration. \u201cThe government talks only of security and has not put a single concrete measure in place for those who can no longer work because of high fuel prices,\u201d says the Democratic Party\u2019s delegation leader Nicola Zingaretti<\/strong>. And on the subject of the EU budget, he warns: \u201cYou cannot ask Europe to intervene while, at the same time, European governments are taking away the resources it needs to do so.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Scuderi (Verdi) told Eunews: \u201cSomeone is making a profit, and in Italy that someone is ENI: those profits are not taxed so that they can be redistributed\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7896,"featured_media":468676,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25681],"tags":[26180,27602,36312,28194,28143,27427,26446,26707,36313],"class_list":["post-468689","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-five-star-enmovement","tag-alleanza-verdi-e-sinistra-italiana","tag-avs-en","tag-brothers-ditalia-en-2","tag-party-democratic-en","tag-force-italia-en-2","tag-pd-en-2","tag-proteste-in-italia"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468689","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7896"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=468689"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468689\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":468690,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468689\/revisions\/468690"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/468676"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=468689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=468689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=468689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}