"The arrival of the Omicron variant, which scientists tell us is much more contagious than the previous ones, has opened a new phase in the pandemic, but vaccines remain the best defense tool against the virus". The President of the Council reiterated this, Mario Draghi, opening the year-end press conference during which he also spoke of the economic recovery, of the maneuver, of the decisions that will be taken during the control room scheduled for tomorrow and of his political destiny: "My personal destinies do not count, the Government will go ahead independently of me,” he said.
VACCINES: BETWEEN OMICRON AND THIRD DOSE
“Of the current ones deaths, three-quarters remain unvaccinated”, Draghi said, then going on to list the numbers of the vaccination campaign: “We administered 106 million doses. Last February 13 we were last in administering the first doses, today 80% of citizens have received at least one dose, a higher proportion than in France, Germany and the United Kingdom ”, said the Premier. Now it will be essential to continue on the same virtuous path, accelerating with the booster doses. “We have administered 15,6 million third doses and reached 3/4 of the currently vaccinable population, so I invite everyone to continue to get vaccinated and do the third dose, this is the priority. The scientific evidence of the vaccines – explained the Prime Minister again – “shows that the third dose works very well even with the new variants”.
Answering a question aboutvaccination requirement, Draghi commented: “it has never been excluded, it has always been in the background and we will evaluate its extension to other categories especially if the infections continue to rise. I don't know if we'll talk about it tomorrow (in the control room, ed.), but we'll probably do it very soon". On a possible lockdown for the unvaccinated, “we are not talking about it for now, but every measure is on the table,” he added.
ECONOMY, EMPLOYMENT AND PNRR
Vaccines have not only been essential for recovering a new form of normality, but they have been “essential for the economy which will grow by more than 6% this year after a decline of almost 9% last year. Employment has restarted (500 jobs) even if it is true that many jobs are fixed-term. But there has been an increase. There are also benefits for the public finances and the debt/GDP ratio will begin to fall as early as this year”, said Draghi.
Turning to the Pnrr, the Premier said "We achieved all 51 goals and at the moment the Commission is discussing the signing of the operating agreement which opens the period of one, two months of interlocution before granting the tranche of the envisaged loans”. “The Government – he continued – remains ready to support the economy in the event of a slowdown, the main challenge remains to increase the growth rate in the long term and resolve the structural weaknesses starting from inequalities”.
RACE TO THE QUIRINALE
Answering journalists' questions about his possible move from Palazzo Chigi to the Quirinale after the end of the mandate of the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, and about the possible repercussions on the government's action, Draghi replied: “We have achieved three great results. We made Italy one of the most vaccinated countries in the world, delivered the Pnrr on time and achieved 51 goals. We have created the conditions for the work on the Pnrr to continue. The government goes on regardless of who will be there. It is the Parliament that decides the life of the government”. Fundamental, according to the Premier, is that the Executive "is supported by a majority like the one that supported this Government, the widest possible".
Draghi then recalled that this government was born at the call of the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella: “This Executive has done a lot of what it was called to do. The support of the political forces was fundamental. My personal fates don't matter absolutely nothing. I have no particular aspirations of one kind or another, I am a man, if you want a grandfather, at the service of the institutions".
THE CONTROL CABIN
On the control room, scheduled for December 23, called to discuss new measures to counter the spread of the Omicron variant, Draghi anticipated that the center of the discussion will be masks, smart working and tampons. At first we will talk about "for example the use of masks even outdoors, which today are foreseen in the event of large gatherings and the use of FFp2 masks, in particular in certain closed environments". “The application of the swab is not excluded – he continued – because there is a period in the green pass in which the protection of the first two doses decreases and the third has not yet been done. In that period the swab is useful ".
Sul green pass iinstead, “it has been discovered as the efficacy of the second doses declines more rapidly and for certain types of vaccine even more rapidly. For this tomorrow it will be decided whether to reduce its duration. As for the school, the Premier has ruled out the extension of the Christmas holidays and a more massive recourse to the Dad.
MANEUVER AND SUPERBONUS
On the budget law, Draghi admitted that there was "very breathless in the final phase of the maneuver discussion. It happened in past years too. This maneuver was accompanied by a long political confrontation” – he said – After the confrontation on the 8 billion there was another confrontation in the control room and then in the Council of Ministers. The period of dialogue with the political forces was not compressed in the initial phase". “There was no lack of opportunities for comparison. There was a lot of anxiety due to the deadlines that the Pnrr imposed in December. Without the contribution of political forces we would not have been able to arrive on time,” he said.
Speaking of the superbonus, on which after the battle between the majority of the government the Isee ceiling previously foreseen was eliminated, Draghi explained: "It is a measure that has given a lot of benefits, but has created distortions and for this reason the government was reluctant to implement it extension. Parliament used the funds for parliamentary action that could also go in other directions, to extend it. But why didn't the government want to? For the distortions, with the extraordinary increase in the prices of the components to make the restructurings. The result is that today an energy efficiency unit costs much more than before. The other aspect is that it has encouraged a lot of fraud”.
SPAZIO
During the conference, Draghi also spoke of the Italian space strategy for which “in total we invest 4.5 billion. Italy will launch the largest constellation of earth observation satellites in low orbit, important for the fight against climate change and for innovative services to businesses”. “The name – he continued – will be proposed by young men and women with a competition at the beginning of 2022 and we will have it chosen by our astronauts led by Samantha Cristoforetti”.
