The "mutual" of tax credit, impossible controls, the siege of producers to defend the director general Borrelli. Meloni: "Disgraceful scandal"

They defend him, they want him back. Why? Who is Nicola Borrelli? Is it the fault of this Carneade, the former director of Cinema of the Ministry of Culture, or is it the fault of producers, directors, who besieged ministers, undersecretaries: "We want him, only him. Don't change him"? If no Italian wants to hear the word Tax credit anymore, is it the fault of Borrelli, who Anica, Apa are defending as if he were Gaius Cilnius Maecenas, or of those who did not say: less, better and supervised? The system has been clogged with practices, a ready reform has been held up. The scent of presumed art was so strong that it covered the stench of fakery.

Meloni says that “the Tax credit was a despicable scandal, a distorted mechanism, costing seven billion in recent years”, that the Kaufmann case is “just the dramatic epilogue of a system” and promises that “the corruption will be flushed out because I am not afraid”. And it is to be believed, but whose fault is it if a civilized law, like the Tax credit, today is only synonymous with fraud and ghost films? In 2023, 402 films were produced, 398 with Tax credit, an increase of 53 percent compared to 2019. Tax credit requests for documentaries went from 56 in 2019 to 104 in 2023. Since the night of July 2, the night of Borrelli's resignation, the associations of the cinema sector, distributors, festivals (the list would be too long) have expressed “strong concern for the void left” and “for the assiduous work guaranteed”. Never has a word been more accurate. Assiduous.

Borrelli has been so assiduous that he has remained in the same position for sixteen years with 11 ministers and 10 governments. In 2019, when Alberto Bonisoli, former yellow-green minister, decides to move him from the management, an interruption, the same revolt as today breaks out. After Bonisoli, Dario Franceschini returns as minister and brings him back to his place because, he said, "the producers want it". Everyone is replaceable but Borrelli evidently not. Why? Because the producers are looking for a friendly face in the ministry (and they find it in Borrelli) and because the ambition of ministers and undersecretaries of Culture is to be friends with artists or at least not have them as enemies. Borrelli is perfect. He also answers at night, he is the health insurance doctor of Italian cinema. Is the practice stopped? "I'll call Borrelli". Was the film rejected? "Now I'll talk to Borrelli about it". He was always there, Borrelli, and they tell the ministry, to console directors, "don't worry, try again next time". And the next time it went well. This is how the Tax credit system is oiled until the cursed time. It is the year of Covid and of course no one remembers that all Italians were Keynesians, they asked the state to pay even just to dig holes. And the state pays.

He pays to fill collapsed movie theaters, he pays for the commercials, “go back to the movies,” “long live the movies.” A ministry office, Borrelli’s management, is inundated and they start stamping, stamping, but each stamp becomes virtual currency, like the Superbonus 110%. The system is gasping for air and there isn’t even a team of ghost-busting officials to unmask a fraudster like Kaufmann. Borrelli should be the one to report any signs of fraud to the authorities, but Borrelli wouldn’t even have time because he has to answer to the “masters,” the politicians they call “the masters,” in many cases vain trombones of dubious talent.

In June 2022, Draghi government, the ministry passes the reform that provides for the return to the 30 percent tax credit and then three weeks of film shooting, the tax credit paid only after the film is finished, you also need to have a distributor in the theater. The producers, those who do not want to be tainted by crooks, say, like Riccardo Tozzi, "we are in, let's do it". The reform is left on the ministry's table, ready, but Sangiuliano arrives at the ministry with the undersecretaries Sgarbi, Borgonzoni, Mazzi, a hunting club, only that the game is who hunts who. For a year and a half Sangiuliano argues with Sgarbi in turn Mazzi tries to wrest power from Sangiuliano and Lucia Borgonzoni keeps the delegation to Audiovisual. For a year and a half the ministry offices are blocked because the nature of the ministry, the organization of the departments, had to be changed. The appointments are shaky, the ministry swerves and is ungoverned. And it goes on like this for the entire duration, for almost two years. You can buy almost anything, but not the harmony that makes a ministry successful. Sgarbi resigns, never replaced, Sangiuliano resigns, Mazzi expands, an attempt is made to narrow Borgonzoni's scope of delegations. The reform remains on a desk because patience is not for sale but indignation is very much so and allows for settling internal scores. Now, with the night, all cats are black. What was Borrelli? He was the arm of a ministry that is not true to be the most beautiful in the world. It is besieged by bums whose breath stinks, half-wits who have the right to the platform otherwise "I'll do an interview and say that...". Poor that minister, that undersecretary who has to answer the phone and make beggars believe they are the new Giorgio Strehlers, defend a category of fanatics, wedding directors all convinced they are Fellini.