Social justice in Italy depends on introducing a guaranteed basic income for the poor, populist premier Giuseppe Conte said on Thursday ahead of new budget targets expected later Thursday after a cabinet meeting.
"As I signalled in my address to the United Nations General Assembly, the government that I lead has a guiding principle: a focus on social justice and giving citizens the necessary conditions for human dignity," Conte told reporters.
"So an important chapter is the citizens' wage," said Conte.
"We obviously can't responsibly have budget that is indifferent to the plight of 4.7 million people living in poverty...who are excluded from the country's economic and social fabric."
Italy's economy minister, Giovanni Tria has come under pressure to approve the 780 euro a month universal citizen's income - a flagship policy of the populist government expected to cost 17 billion euros -among other costly measures.
Tria is understood to have set a limit on spending of about 1.6 percent of debt above GDP - within European Union fiscal rules - while the grassroots Five-Star leader Luigi Di Mail and far-right League leader Matteo Salvini have called for spending in the region of 2-2.5 percent.
Five Star and the League swept to power promising a series of tax cuts, new social welfare policies and better pensions, despite Italy's huge 2.3 trillion euro debt pile - policies that have set the government on a potential collision course with the European Commission and alarmed financial markets.
