ITALY PERSPECTIVE

Rome pronounces the taboo word: recession. Economy Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti, reports ANSA, warns that recession "will arrive" if the energy crisis triggered by the Iran war doesn't resolve. It's a rare public admission from a Meloni government member, who simultaneously demands suspension of the Stability Pact to give countries like Italy budget room. The Prime Minister and Economy Minister have been sounding alerts in Brussels for days. Italy, a manufacturing economy dependent on imported energy and already constrained by tight fiscal space, is the first major European economy to name the threat outright. Italian coverage is the most political in the pool: it's not an article about inflation, it's an article about the power dynamic between Rome and Brussels over European budget rules.