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Electricity bills in Italy rise by almost 30 percent from Friday

Electricity bills in Italy rise by almost 30 percent from Friday

Electricity bills in Italy rise by almost 30 percent from Friday

Energy prices are set to rise in Italy this week despite government interventions. Photo: Sebastien Bozon/AFP
Households and businesses in Italy will be paying more for electricity and gas from Friday with another steep price rise at the start of the third quarter, despite government measures to limit the increase.

Household electricity bills will rise by 29.8% for the typical family and gas bills will go up by 14.4%, Italy’s energy regulatory authority Arera confirmed in a press release on Tuesday evening.

The new national tariffs come in from Friday, at the start of the fourth quarter of 2021 (October-December).

The increase comes amid surging energy costs across Europe, and beyond.

The price rise passed on to Italian consumers could’ve reached 45 percent, Arera said, if the government had not stepped in to cap the new rise in rates.

The Italian government last week announced measures costing three billion euros aimed at limiting a steeper rise in energy prices for consumers.

As well as keeping the cost to most families below 30 percent and 15 percent, the government measures will keep additional costs at zero for those least well-off, including households with an income under 8,265 euros, families with at least 4 dependent children with an income of less than 20,000 euros, those who receive a state pension or unemployment benefit, and people who are seriously ill, Sky TG24 reports.

The measures also cut the ‘general charge’ from gas bills for all throughout the last quarter of 2021, and on electricity for families and some small businesses.

Last quarter, the retail cost of electricity rose by 9.9% and gas by 15.3% from July 1st.

The government also stepped in that time to cap costs, with 1.2 billion euros in state aid.

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Why Merkel’s coalition could be about to collapse

Why Merkel’s coalition could be about to collapse

Why Merkel's coalition could be about to collapse
Photo: DPA
A fight between Angela Merkel and and her Interior Minister Horst Seehofer is threatening to collapse the German government less than three months after it was formed. Not for the first time, the two can’t agree on how to treat asylum seekers at the border.

What is the strife all about?

Merkel and Seehofer have been squabbling ever since the autumn of 2015, when the Chancellor decided to open Germany’s borders to refugees who were stranded in Hungary.

Pressure had been building throughout the summer on the government to do more to help people fleeing war in Syria. When 71 decomposing bodies were found in the back of a smugglers van in Austria, the German public was left stunned at the desperate plight of people seeking refuge in Europe.

Inside her own CDU party, Merkel was being told that her Christian voting base was becoming disenchanted by the Chancellor’s seeming indifference to the fates of the migrants. Meanwhile, on the European level, the migrants crisis was threatening to sow discord between countries like Greece and Italy on the front line and northern European states that were insulated from the arrivals.

Seehofer, head of Bavaria’s CSU party, saw things differently though. At the time he was state leader in Bavaria, the southern state bordering Austria. His voter base there was staunchly conservative and well known for its suspicion of outsiders, even those from other parts of Germany. He also knew though that his state would have to bear the biggest initial burden, as the vast majority of refugees were coming into Bavaria from Austria.

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Olduvai IV: Courage
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Olduvai II: Exodus
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