This is exactly like CEO’s and bankers taking huge bonuses after needing bailouts. They send the nation bankrupt, then they tell everyone else to live under austerity while they continue to eat 14 course meals and snort blow with hookers all night on taxpayers money. It works the same everywhere.
If Italy is bankrupt what makes them think they are worth €16K a month? They are obviously either useless or corrupt. Either way, not worth €16K a month.
Some people say the government should have high pay to attract high quality people. That leads to fat cats that suck the public dry. I think it’s time to pay government minimum wage. Then people who actually give a damn will want the jobs.
Italy’s widely-reviled politicians are the best paid in Europe, according to a study that will increase the pressure on MPs in Rome to accept substantial pay cuts. A Europe-wide survey by a parliamentary committee has found that average monthly gross pay for Italy’s MPs, including expenses, is more than €16,000 and for some may exceed €18,000.
French MPs, with a gross monthly remuneration of about €14,000 are the second best paid in the eurozone, with German MPs receiving about €12,600. Spanish MPs fare worst, at €4,650 a month, excluding secretarial costs.
The report will reinforce calls for the salaries of Italian MPs to be slashed to the European average, in a period when the public is being told to tighten its belt as the technocrat government introduces new austerity measures to tackle the country’s debt mountain.
Premier Mario Monti signalled in his first speech to the Italian parliament in November that unwarranted perks and pay for Italy’s privileged classes, particularly parliamentarians, would be cut to save money and set an example.
But MPs rebelled as soon as plans were touted to cut their pay and pensions. The government promptly agreed it was up to parliamentarians to reduce their own salaries. A spokesman for the Prime Minister denied the government had done a U-turn. He told The Independent it had been decided that deciding the remuneration of MPs and senators came under the remit of parliamentary business.