The government of Giorgia Meloni is planning to transfer the enormous gold holdings of the Italian central bank to the state. At the same time, citizens will be asked to legitimize undeclared private gold through a one-time levy. Italy is pursuing a two-edged strategy with the precious metal.

Gold has served as a store of value and transaction medium for thousands of years. Since the financial and sovereign-debt crisis of 2008/09, the metal has staged a modern-day comeback that initially went largely unnoticed—until central-bank purchases exploded into a full-blown global gold rush.

In the current year alone, the gold price has surged by roughly 55%.

The main buyers are central banks such as the People's Bank of China and the Russian central bank. Since SWIFT and the U.S. dollar have been deployed as geopolitical weapons—through sanctions, embargoes, and transaction bans—the BRICS nations in particular feel compelled to build a gold-backed monetary system to ensure mutual trust.

After all, who wants to hold reserves in a currency like the digital yuan, which can be wiped out with a keystroke in a moment of political friction?

Meloni’s Move: Italy’s Gold Takes Center Stage

Against this backdrop of rising uncertainty and exploding public debt, the news that Meloni’s Fratelli d’Italia (FdI) submitted a motion on November 26 regarding the Bank of Italy’s gold reserves carries major weight.
The proposal would strip the central bank of authority over its 2,452-ton gold hoard—valued at roughly $300 billion—and transfer it to the state “in the name of the Italian people.”

Government insiders say the move is meant to ensure the bullion cannot one day be used against the state’s will.

A Vote of No Confidence in the ECB?

What’s going on here? Whom is Rome hinting at in this conspiratorial tone? The move can easily be read as an open vote of no confidence in the European Central Bank. Brussels’ long-standing ambition to consolidate national gold reserves under ECB control is well known—and has been repeatedly rejected by Germany’s Bundesbank.

Gold remains one of the last sovereign escape hatches for nation-states inside the eurozone.

Let us set aside the unlikely scenario that Rome intends to monetize its bullion to cover short-term budget holes.

Strategic Reserve

A more plausible explanation: Italy may be preparing—much like the United States—for the contingency of a eurozone breakup by building a fully sovereign strategic gold reserve.

A partially gold-backed national currency could stabilize the economy during a turbulent transition and help anchor interest rates.

A second option is a financial-engineering play: Rome could use part of its bullion as hard collateral for new government bonds, embedding gold directly into its yield curve. That would strengthen investor confidence, lower refinancing costs, and improve long-term debt sustainability—assuming Italy restores fiscal discipline.

Italy Charts Its Own Course

Italy would instantly become one of the world’s largest state gold holders—and it would be no surprise if Meloni pursued a distinctly Italian path on this issue.

Signs of divergence from Brussels have been visible for years. On migration, Italy long attempted to impose its own approach but ran up against domestic resistance and the pro-EU stance of President Sergio Mattarella. In energy policy, Rome has been racing ahead to secure independence via the TransMed pipeline through Algeria and Tunisia.

Taken together, Italy appears to be quietly crafting an exit strategy—both in energy and monetary policy—under Brussels’ radar. For the EU, this would be a geopolitical headache of the highest order, not least because of Italy’s traditionally strong ties to Donald Trump’s United States.

The Hidden Treasure of Italian Households

Parallel to its attempt to pull the central bank's gold under state control, the government now plans to document citizens’ private gold holdings—estimated at more than 5,000 tons, roughly twice the state reserve. A colossal pile of wealth held outside the reach of the state.

A one-time levy of 12.5%—calculated on current market value—would “legalize” this mostly undocumented gold.
The move is meant to temporarily ease fiscal pressure, with Italy’s deficit running at roughly 3% this year.

Such a gold registry would bring Rome much closer to the EU’s preferred asset-register model. A fully transparent citizen would lose his last financial safe haven—and become vulnerable to new levies at any time, including a wealth tax on newly documented gold. The logic mirrors real estate cadastres already used in most states.

Meloni’s Gold Strategy: Sovereignty or Control?

In the end, Meloni’s gold policy is a double-edged sword. On one hand, resisting ECB overreach is understandable.

And issuing gold-backed sovereign bonds could offer a credible path through the looming debt crisis while global rates rise and trust in sovereign paper erodes.

On the other hand, Europe’s old instinct reappears: surveilling private finances, eliminating escape routes, and stripping citizens of their last bastions of autonomy.
One can only hope that the documentation effort meets the same fate as the U.S. gold ban under Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933, when most citizens simply refused to comply.

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Thomas Kolbe, born in 1978 in Neuss/ Germany, is a graduate economist. For over 25 years, he has worked as a journalist and media producer for clients from various industries and business associations. As a publicist, he focuses on economic processes and observes geopolitical events from the perspective of the capital markets. His publications follow a philosophy that focuses on the individual and their right to self-determination.