In the evening, there were many guests at Cruz's house today, and all of them were big bosses from the National Socialist Party.
For example, His Excellency Zargue, who serves as the Minister of Education, His Excellency Andry, who serves as the Minister of Transport, and Kaleb, who serves as the Minister of Industry. In addition, Campos, Lacerda and others, executive members of the National Socialist Party, also came
.
The gathering of cabinet ministers and executive members of the National Socialist Party at Cruz's home was certainly eye-catching.
For this reason, Cruz deliberately let the public know that he is planning to discuss the midterm elections with senior officials of the National Socialist Party today. Regardless of whether others believe it or not, it can at least give this gathering a reasonable excuse.
Although the party was in name only, it still needed to be done in a decent manner, so after a few drinks, the group of people came to his study.
Fortunately, the Cruz family's study room is large and can accommodate a dozen people.
After everyone was seated, Cruz, as the convener this time, spoke. "Everyone, I have summoned you here this time because I have important matters to discuss with you. I met with His Majesty today. His Majesty plans to start from next year.
From more than 30% of the total fiscal revenue to 40%. I came to you to think about what should be done so that the government departments can reduce the budget to 60% of the total budget."
Cruz's words made everyone at the scene look at each other because the news was so shocking. Although relations between major countries are currently tense, this approach of directly increasing military spending to 40% of the fiscal budget is too radical.
Because this is not preparing for war at all, but preparing for war. There is still a moment when war preparations are cancelled. Although this will cause certain losses and may cause turmoil, it is still bearable.
There is basically no possibility of canceling the preparations for war, because a large amount of investment has been squeezed out of other government departments and a large number of weapons have been manufactured. If canceled at this time, there will definitely be a backlash. The turmoil is light, and it may not be possible to change the system.
possible.
And 40% of the fiscal budget is basically the maximum limit that countries can use in peace, because this is the limit that the government can use in peacetime (except of course, the red system, which is too organized, and it is simply a foul to compare monarchy and republic).
As long as a country invests 40% of its fiscal revenue into the military, it means that there is no turning back and it must fight a war.
Everyone present also knew this, so they were shocked by the Prime Minister's words.
"Is there no room for reversal?"
Education Secretary Zarger couldn't help but ask at this moment.
"No."
The Prime Minister knew what he meant and answered directly and categorically. "Not only the King thinks so, but I think so too. Italy has no room to turn around. You have also seen the development of Italy in recent years. I believe you also know that Italy has developed to a state in these years."
It’s not easy to do this. Now it’s no longer enough to just concentrate on development. Italy’s market capacity is coming to an end. What should we do then? If we don’t figure out a solution now, how long will we wait?”
None of you here understand the meaning of Cruz's words. The National Socialist Party is now the ruling party, and except for those who serve as ministers, the other top leaders of the National Socialist Party are more or less familiar with the situation in the government.
Knowing the current hidden crisis in Italy, we also know that what Cruz said is the only way out for Italy at the moment.
Although this is not as domineering as the Kaiser's phrase "Use German swords to obtain land for German plows," it still means the same thing, which is the need to find a market for the country.
This is also a disadvantage of late-developing countries, because the market has been occupied by early-developing countries. Unless your domestic market is large enough, you can complete its own cycle without relying on the external market. But at present, the only ones in the world that can possibly do this are the big countries in the Far East.
Even America, the Chosen Country, cannot do this because its population is not large enough. Although its resources are still abundant, people need to buy the goods to produce them.
If you want to break this passive situation, there is only one way to seize the market it occupies.
How can the first-mover country allow you to seize its market? Then it can only use the most straightforward method, which is just war, and whoever wins gets it.
"So what do we do?"
This is what Secretary of State Andry is asking. On the surface, it is a question, but in fact it means that he agrees with Cruz's point of view.
With Andre taking the lead, several others followed suit. "Prime Minister (party leader), tell me what to do."
Even Zarger, who asked before, made the same statement. After all, he is not stupid. When everyone agrees, how could he object? Isn't this isolating himself? No one with a little bit of emotional intelligence would do this, let alone
Say he is a political figure.
Faced with the tacit support of everyone present, it would be a lie to say that Cruz was not moved, but at this moment he could not express his gratitude and could only keep it in his heart.
"First we need to count the budgets of the departments we are in charge of, and directly cut off the unimportant or minor budgets, and then we add them up to see how much the reduction is. Next, I will talk to the Minister of Finance first about this year's overall budget.
How much is it? Then we will discuss with several other department ministers and ask them to lower the budget as well, leaving 40% of the budget for the military."
Everyone present agreed with the Prime Minister's words. This kind of budget reduction is really the only way to do it. Talking about it department by department. If we make an appointment together, it will not be easy to talk.
Unlike them, they are all from the same political party, and the budget saved is to restore Italy's glory, so they can make sense.
This moment also shows the importance of Carlo choosing the National Socialist Party to become the ruling party. This extreme approach can only be recognized by an extreme party. If it is replaced by a left-wing party that has been in power before, it will definitely be difficult for it to agree to such an extreme approach.
, even if Carlo forced them to do it, procrastination would be considered a good thing.
After the tone was set, there were still issues with details. Several National Socialist Party bosses serving in the cabinet began to discuss which budgets should be cut and which ones should not be cut. However, basically they all had more important budgets and less important ones.
less.
After two or three hours of this noise, no preliminary results were achieved.
In the end, Cruz came up with a way to reduce each department based on the proportion of each department in the fiscal budget last year and the proportion of the government's shrinkage this year. If it is true that the reduction cannot be made, he must explain it to him and give him enough reasons to convince him.
Just give a reason, otherwise it will have to be cut.
Cruz's method may not be the most reasonable, but it is the best solution at present, otherwise they would have been arguing about it for three days and three nights.
If the ministers of the National Socialist Party are so difficult to deal with, it is conceivable that Cruz has a new understanding of his task.
Sure enough, in the following time, Cruz summoned other ministers in charge one by one to talk about budget cuts in his departments. The attitude of the ministers was so determined.
The basic process is as follows:
"It's impossible!"
"Our department's budget cannot be reduced. Every budget is very important."
"There is only so much that can be reduced. If we reduce it more, it will affect the operation of the department."
"There is no other way. I can only reduce one more item, just one item."
"Prime Minister, why do you insist on forcing me? You can find other departments. Our department has already reduced everything it can."
"Cruz, are you satisfied now?"
Although the words are different, the attitudes are basically the same.
Moreover, these ministers persisted for varying lengths of time. Some agreed in a few days, some took more than ten days to agree, and some even delayed their acceptance for a month, almost before the budget meeting.
In more than a month, the energy spent in it is unimaginable to others. Just use a piece of data to know that in more than a month after Cruz took over the task, the prime minister lost more than ten kilograms.
Almost out of phase.
Finally, at the budget meeting at the end of the year, the government passed the budget for the new fiscal year. In this total financial budget of 34.19 lire, the total military expenditure of the navy and army reached 1.37 billion lire. Among them, the army was allocated 822 million lire, and the navy was allocated 822 million lire.
To 548 million lire.
It can be said that this budget, which far exceeded the estimates of the navy and army, made them overjoyed. However, when they saw the murderous looks in the eyes of their government colleagues, the two navy and army ministers did not dare to express their secret joy.
Of course, they also knew that since the king had secured such a generous budget for the navy and army, what was to be done next would not be simple. The idea of a war had already taken root in the minds of the navy and army ministers.
Next, all kinds of military preparations are needed to make Italy's sword sharper and cut down the enemies pointed by the kingdom.
