Hard line on border workers: “Let’s bring tax rebates to 12.5%.”.

Lowering tax rebates to Italian Communes from 38 to 12%, this is the political line that the National Council – the lower chamber of Swiss’ Parliament – has decided to adopt, after a proposal from Canton Ticino, who have already made such a decision in that sense. "Italy is hostile on free exchange, hostile on free competition, and negotiating with white gloves won’t yield any results." lamented Fulvio Pelli, the speaker of the commission who invited the National Council to support Ticino’s original claim on the matter. "Canton Ticino knows it well when it comes to the relationship with Italy. Let’s listen to Canton Ticino” he added with irony “instead of sending to Rome Swiss-German people who don’t know Italian and negotiate in English.".

And after all, the National Council’s vote – with the precise indication of a cut of drawbacks to 12% – also ruled for a partial change of line on a Confederation level, considering that last autumn, the States (the higher chamber of the Parliament) had rejected Canton Ticino’s proposal, opting for a less drastic draft on the modification of the treaties. The text of the ruling approved by the States is, in fact, more generic, it asks to solve the issue of the lack of reciprocity for what concerns the taxation of Swiss people who work in the Italian board, and to "evaluate the recent changes in the socio-economic reality of board regions that are directly touched by the 1974 treaty and redefine the nature of the compensatory payment by adapting it to current circumstances.".

The decision of the National Council will undoubtedly increase the worries of bordering communities between Italy and Switzerland, who already have to deal with arrears which are still frozen.