When the world gets closer.

We help you see farther.

Sign up to our expressly international daily newsletter.

Geopolitics

Italy Levies Post-Quake “Solidarity” Tax On Gasoline


CORRIERE DELLA SERA,
LA REPUBBLICA (Italy)

ROME - The Italian government has issued a decree raising the excise tax on petrol by 0.02 euros per liter in order to raise funds for the victims of the earthquake that struck Tuesday in the northern part of the country, Corriere della Sera reports.

Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti did not rule out also raising the value added tax in order to fund reconstruction efforts. Help has also come from the European Union.

The Italian government also decreed that a minute of silence be observed June 4 for the victims of yesterday's quake. The 5.8-magnitude event is believed to have killed 17 people.

The governor of Emilia-Romagna, the region hit by the earthquake, welcomed the tax contribution and said "Italians will understand" that the rise is necessary. But a consumer group called Codacons said the hike was ill-advised, La Repubblica reports. The organization said the rise represented 29 euros a year for a car driver, and that a "domino effect" on prices of other goods was to be expected from such a measure.

Later in the day, Development Minister Corrado Passera asked petrol companies to lower their profit margins in order to compensate the hike.

You've reached your limit of free articles.

To read the full story, start your free trial today.

Get unlimited access. Cancel anytime.

Exclusive coverage from the world's top sources, in English for the first time.

Insights from the widest range of perspectives, languages and countries.

Society

Why Every New Parent Should Travel Alone — Without Their Children

Argentine journalist Ignacio Pereyra travels to Italy alone to do some paperwork as his family stays behind. While he walks alone around Rome, he experiences mixed feelings: freedom, homesickness and nostalgia, and wonders what leads people to desire larger families.

Photo of a man sitting donw with his luggage at Athens' airport

Alone at Athens' international airport

Ignacio Pereyra

I realize it in the morning before leaving: I feel a certain level of excitement about traveling. It feels like enthusiasm, although it is confusing. I will go from Athens to Naples to see if I can finish the process for my Italian citizenship, which I started five years ago.

I started the process shortly after we left Buenos Aires, when my partner Irene and I had been married for two years and the idea of having children was on the vague but near horizon.

Now there are four of us and we have been living in Greece for more than two years. We arrived here in the middle of the pandemic, which left a mark on our lives, as in the lives of most of the people I know.

But now it is Sunday morning. I tell Lorenzo, my four-year-old son, that I am leaving for a few days: “No, no, Dad. You can’t go. Otherwise I’ll throw you into the sea.”

Keep reading...Show less

You've reached your limit of free articles.

To read the full story, start your free trial today.

Get unlimited access. Cancel anytime.

Exclusive coverage from the world's top sources, in English for the first time.

Insights from the widest range of perspectives, languages and countries.

The latest