Carlo Bonomi, the president of Confindustria, the main association representing manufacturing and service companies in Italy, has scrapped the idea of early retirement age floated in the plans to reform the country’s pension system put forward during the electoral campaign by the far-right parties that won the recent election.

“We cannot afford new measures [leading to] early retirement that continue to weight on the budget of INPS [the first pillar Istituto Nazionale di Previdenza Sociale] compared to the contributions collected,” Bonomi said during his first speech after the outcome of the political elections held at a meeting in Varese, Lombardy.

Bonomi has also rejected the idea of an “imaginative flat tax” on personal income tax (Irpef), without thinking about Irap (tax on regional production activities), and Ires (the corporate income tax).

Confindustria hopes that the coalition that won the election will form a government “as quick as possible, a government made up of authoritative and competent people,” he added.

The League, one of the three parties to win the election alongside Brothers of Italy (Fratelli d’Italia), and Forza Italia, is proposing to overcome the Fornero law through a so-called Quota 41, meaning that workers reach the right to early retirement with 41 years of contributions.

Women would have the right to retire at the age of 63, compared with the current 67, and at least 20 years of contributions, according to The League’s programme.

Brothers of Italy is instead in favour of raising minimum and social pensions and increasing incapacity pensions, according to the electoral programme.

In the current economic situation “no one can make realistic predictions” on growth and the effects of the rise in prices after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, said Bonomi.

The new government needs to find a “broad convergence on the choices to be made, even with the opposition, to face the two major emergencies that are energy and public finance,” he said.

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Luigi is IPE's Berlin-based DACH correspondent. His coverage includes regulation and the latest pensions and investments trends, and, being a native Italian, he also covers Italy’s pensions market. He has reported from Italy and Germany on international politics and business for European and US publications including USA Today, Bloomberg BNA and for the investigative magazine L’Espresso. He was previously Germany correspondent for Mergermarket covering M&A.View full Profile

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