Rome, 27 October (LaPresse) – "There is no intention here to punish landlords, but we need to understand whether we should somehow reward residential rentals or rentals to foreign tourists. That's all there is to it.‘ So said Economy Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti in an interview with Quarta Repubblica, hosted by Nicola Porro and broadcast tonight on Retequattro. ’The flat tax was created to encourage residential rentals. Then there is the business management of short-term rentals and the management of rentals as it has always been done. But it's not as if the budget law passes through an article of this type – which is a very small thing – on which there has been a great deal of debate, for goodness' sake,‘ says the minister, who does not want to hear talk of a “slap in the face for the middle class”: ’No, I don't think so at all. For the first time, the middle class is getting tax cuts that we have managed to achieve thanks to the serious work we have done over the last three years'. He adds: “Tenant arrears are another problem. The problem is not the landlords, the problem is Airbnb and this whole mechanism that has objectively destroyed the market for other types of rentals”.