The Italian government has ordered every household in the country to replace its windows and heating system within a single working day, after a new ceiling on energy-upgrade spending was announced in the budget law. Ministry officials confirmed that the deadline is fixed and that no extensions will be granted to citizens who are still waiting for a plumber.
In Rome, the Ministry of the Environment has converted its own atrium into a temporary staging yard where engineers cut old aluminium frames into standard lengths. Officials said the department had already replaced its 1950s radiators by lunchtime, and that the minister personally carried the first new window up the stairs to the fourth floor. "We have decided that the budget ceiling is a ceiling we intend to reach," a senior ministry spokesperson told reporters while standing on a stepladder.
Across the Lazio region, residents have been instructed to queue outside hardware shops at six in the morning, where a rationing system issues one boiler per postcode. Local councils have closed the central piazzas to accommodate the lorries, and the bakeries of several towns have stopped selling bread so that their ovens can be dismantled and sent to recycling. By evening, the national supply of double-glazed panes is expected to be exhausted, and the government has already announced a second, equally binding deadline for the following Tuesday.