Almost every country in the world possesses gold reserves. They are usually defined as part of international reserves, which consist of foreign currency and monetary gold, bars of precious metals. Gold is recorded on the balance sheet of the monetary authorities, the central bank, the Ministry of Finance, and debt management agencies. Not all countries have a clear legal status for their gold reserves. At certain moments, this legal ambiguity can create acute situations. On the other hand, such acute situations make us once again consider the purpose of the gold reserve and to whom it ultimately belongs. Especially when gold reserves are recorded on the balance sheet of the central bank. After all, in many countries of the world, central banks are considered independent from the state. Does the gold reserve belong to the state, and the central bank simply manages that reserve on behalf of the state? Or does the central bank fully manage the gold reserve and the state has nothing to do with it? Does the government have the right, if necessary, to remove part of the gold reserve from the central bank to cover emergency expenses?
Or is this essentially impossible?
It seems that such questions are being heard more often in Italy. For Italy, these questions are not theoretical reflections, since the country's gold reserves are impressive. Italy has the third largest gold reserve in the world with 2.452 tons. Only the United States (8.133 tons) and Germany (3.350 tons) are above it in this indicator. Incidentally, in terms of the share of gold in international reserves, Italy ranks among the first in the world. Today, this share reaches 71%. For example, in the United Kingdom, the corresponding percentage is below 15%. At the same time, Italy’s economic position is very dire compared to other European Union member states. At the end of last year, Italy’s public debt amounted to 135% of GDP. And by the end of the current year, according to forecasts, it will reach 139% of GDP. Within the EU (27 countries), only one country is ahead of Italy in this indicator, Greece (153% of GDP). Italy’s budget deficit by the end of the year is expected to reach 72–73 billion dollars. And the gold reserves in November were estimated at about 300 billion dollars as their value increased significantly due to the rise in the price of the precious metal. It turns out that the gold reserves could cover the budget deficit (if it remains at this year’s level, slightly above 3% of GDP) for at least four years. The idea of using them to stabilize the economic situation has repeatedly occupied Italian politicians. Moreover, since 1976, when the gold standard was abolished at the Jamaica Conference and the precious metal was downgraded to a common tradable commodity, the Italian gold reserve has remained unused. Gold ceased to be an instrument of monetary policy as it was in the first decades after Bretton Woods. Soon it will be half a century since Italy’s gold reserve has remained at approximately 2.452 tons. For at least the last twenty years, the Italian parliament and the government have raised the issue of the government’s ability to use the gold reserves recorded on the balance sheet of the central bank (Bank of Italy), which has the status of a joint-stock company, naturally independent from the state.
How economic sovereignty is regained
The last strong surge of such activity occurred in 2018–2019, when a critical mass seemed to form for the majority of conservative politicians in the Italian parliament who supported the economic revival of Italy and at least the partial restoration of the sovereignty of the republic from Brussels. In November 2018, the deputy Claudio Borghi, head of the budget committee of the lower house, representing the Lega Nord, submitted to parliament a bill that provided for the elimination of the anomaly, that is, the presence of gold on the balance sheet of the Bank of Italy. It had to pass under the direct control of the government. On 11 February 2019, the then Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior, Matteo Salvini, stated at a press conference that the government was ready to bring the resolution of the gold reserve issue to its logical conclusion. He stated openly that the country’s foreign exchange reserves and gold belong to its citizens and not to the central bank in which they are stored. This declaration was widely reproduced by the Italian media. In April 2019, a group of members of the Italian parliament from the Five Star Movement introduced two interconnected bills. The first provided for the transfer of the reserves of the Bank of Italy to the government of the country, specifically to the Ministry of Finance. The second was the nationalization of the Bank of Italy through the sale of shares owned by private banks and other private institutions to the Italian state. In fact, sale at the prices of the 1930s, when they had been purchased.
“The gold belongs to the Italians, not to the bankers,” was the slogan. “We are ready to fight everywhere and to bring Italians into the streets if necessary,” declared Giorgia Meloni, leader of Brothers of Italy and current Prime Minister, who supported both bills. It seemed that the two bills had the support of at least half the MPs but for reasons not fully explained by the media, they never became law. And now, a few years later, in the current 2025, the intense discussion on gold has resumed in Italy. At the end of November, the Italian Senate, during the discussion of the budget for 2026, again recalled the gold reserves. A very important amendment was proposed to the budget law. This legislative initiative was undertaken by Lucio Malan, representative of the Brothers of Italy party, which belongs to the ruling coalition of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni (the same one who in 2019 demanded the nationalization of the gold reserve and the Bank of Italy). The amendment stated that “the gold reserves managed by the Bank of Italy belong to the State on behalf of the Italian people.” According to one version, Senator Lucio Malan received the order to introduce this amendment from Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni herself.
Where the European gold reserves are stored
The terror of the bankers
Already in 2018–2019, the European Central Bank had intervened in the preparation of the two bills for the nationalization of the gold reserves and the central bank of Italy, stating that these nationalizations were contrary to EU rules. It was emphasized that any attempt to place the central bank under state control threatens destabilizing the financial system. Officials of the ECB also reminded that the gold of the central bank may only be used as a tool of monetary policy and not as a source of covering the state budget. With their proposals for the nationalization of gold and of the central bank, the right-wing and conservative politicians of Italy were essentially questioning the entire economic architecture of the European Union. At that time, Frankfurt managed to suppress the dissent of the conservative Italians. Incidentally, the head of the ECB then was the Italian Mario Draghi, who from 2005–2011 was governor of the central bank. But in spirit and in background, Mario Draghi was a cosmopolitan in the service of the money masters. Therefore, for him, the nationalization of the gold reserve and of the central bank constituted the most terrible political heresy against the economic orthodoxy of the Brussels swamp. This time, the ECB under Christine Lagarde reacted immediately to the amendment of Lucio Malan. The ECB warned that any violation of the autonomy of the central bank, for example in the management of the gold reserve, would be incompatible with EU treaties. Pressure is being exerted on the Italian parliament. And on 1 December, information appeared in the media that MPs of the ruling party of Italy had abandoned the original version of the amendment. The new version states that the gold reserves belong to the people, and the state was removed from the amendment. The words “belong to the people” and “property of the people” do not particularly oblige anything, they are simply beautiful phrases without legal consequences. But the dangerous word “state” disappeared from the text so that parliament and government would not be tempted to use the gold to cover budgetary expenses. In the Italian press, this obedience of Italian officials and politicians was considered an admission that Italy’s gold reserves, and all international reserves, are under the management of the ECB. Naturally, the story of Italy’s gold once again highlighted the real role of the central bank, which is completely autonomous from the state and subordinated only to certain supranational institutions. In the case of the Bank of Italy, this is the ECB.
The uprising of Viktor Orban
The efforts of other EU countries to place their central banks under state control failed. In particular, in late 2011 in Hungary, on the initiative of the new Prime Minister Viktor Orban, the legislation governing the status of the central bank of Hungary, the MNB (Hungarian National Bank), was changed. It was to be placed under the direct control of the government. The IMF and the EU became alarmed. They saw in the new legislation the threat that the country might escape the control of the money masters. The transformation of the MNB under the new law was scheduled to be completed by the end of March 2012. In April 2012, parliament was forced to vote for the restoration of the independence of the Hungarian National Bank. The money masters quickly managed to suppress the mutiny onboard. In May 2012, Viktor Orban exploded, saying, “A gang of robbers that has seized power in the European Union is engaged in the vile enslavement of everyone who can be dragged there! In Hungary they realized it and are trying to save themselves. But the international financial mafia is holding the Hungarians tightly by the throat.” We can also recall his statement at that time, “Hungary was treated as a colony.” It seems that Italy was once again treated in the same way that Hungary was treated in 2012.
To conclude, it is worth noting that Italy’s position as a colony of the money masters is made even worse by the fact that Italy’s gold reserves are essentially not controlled even by the Bank of Italy. Only on paper does the Bank of Italy have 2.452 tons of precious metal worth 300 billion dollars on its balance sheet. But on Italian territory only 44.9% of the total gold reserve is stored, in the vault of Palazzo Koch on Via Nazionale in Rome. The rest is located outside the country.
1) 43.3% is stored abroad, at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in Manhattan.
2) 6.1% is located in Switzerland, in a vault in Bern.
3) 5.8% has been deposited at the Bank of England in London.
The gold reserves of many countries are traditionally stored not only on their own territory but also abroad. Mainly in New York, Switzerland, and London. Some small amounts in Paris and Brussels. But in the last decade or so, the monetary authorities of many countries began repatriating their gold. It is clear, not without resistance from the custodian countries, the United States, Switzerland, and England. For example, Germany returned about 1.710 tons of gold to its homeland from 2013 to August 2017. Now 50.3% of the total German gold reserve is already in Germany. But Italy still has more than half of its gold reserves abroad. And unlike Germany, Italy has not managed to recover anything so far. The money masters hold tightly to the gold, which belongs only nominally to the central banks. And they cannot even bring themselves to utter the word that it is the property of the nation.
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