Minimum wage in Tuscany: Meloni's government wages war on Giani on the eve of the elections and challenges the regional law.

Favors and gifts in the Marche region , slaps in the face in Tuscany . This is the ambivalence of the Meloni government in the regions preparing to return to the polls for the regional elections in the fall .

In the first, in fact, the one playing for re-election is the outgoing governor Francesco Acquaroli , a member of the Brothers of Italy party and a staunch supporter of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, while in the second, it is the Democratic Party representative Eugenio Giani who is seeking an encore.

This also explains the behavior of Palazzo Chigi in recent days, which, with Meloni and Tajani, hastily flew to Ancona to bring Acquaroli the Special Economic Zone (with its tax breaks) like the Southern Regions, while starting a legal battle with "red" Tuscany.

At the same Council of Ministers meeting on Monday, August 4, in which the executive approved the ZES for the Marche region, the government also decided to challenge a Tuscany Region law that favors the adoption of a minimum wage by certain categories of companies.

Monday's appeal is in reality only the latest clash in a real war between the government and Giani : the one on the minimum wage is the fourth provision introduced by the Tuscany Region that Palazzo Chigi has blocked in a year, after those on tourism , beach concessions and assisted suicide .

The final bone of contention is Law No. 30 of June 18, 2025 : it provides that regional public tenders will favor companies that pay their employees at least €9 gross per hour. This is intended to incentivize businesses in sectors such as cleaning, security, and delivery services, which pass on the proposed reductions in wages offered to their workforces to increase wages.

The threshold indicated, 9 euros per hour, is the same as the center-left opposition's 2023 parliamentary proposal, which Meloni's majority had strongly opposed. In the Tuscany Region, however, the law on minimum wages in tenders was approved with the favorable vote of the center-left governing parties and the Five Star Movement, while the right abstained.

Palazzo Chigi justified its challenge to Tuscany's measure by basing it on state laws protecting competition, citing Article 117 of the Constitution , which grants the state jurisdiction over competition regulations. Tuscany President Eugenio Giani announced that the Region will appeal the challenge to the Constitutional Court.