Beatrice Lorenzin, outgoing Minister of Health and leader of Civica Popolare runs as leader in the plurinominal in the Chamber in Milan, Palermo, Naples, Turin and Trieste. You will also lead the centre-left single-member constituency in Modena. As a minister you have worked on several fronts but what most distinguished you was your battle for the obligatory nature of vaccinations for exanthematous diseases in children.
In these years of crisis, the family has proved to be the true pillar of our welfare. For this reason, as the first provision of the new legislature, if elected, I would propose a package of reforms to support the birth rate and female employment. A real "Marshall plan" for the family, in response to the increasingly dramatic data arriving from Istat, such as for example those relating to the birth rate, which collapsed to the level of the last century, with a fertility rate which in our country settles at 1,39 children per woman in childbearing age, among the lowest among developed countries. For us at Civica Popolare, the family is not only the promoter of development and social well-being, but also the place in which to cultivate the future, the desire for motherhood and fatherhood.
Economic incentives, by themselves, are not enough to convince a couple to give birth to a child, but the issue is deeper and cultural. The reform package that we have drawn up includes economically viable proposals. So these are not promises or pipe dreams but of initiatives, such as the introduction of free nursery schools, which would cost around 1,5 billion euros but which would bring our country closer to the European target of 60% in terms of female employment, increasing the productivity of the Italian system with a significant growth in GDP, credited by experts up to seven points. Support for the family must also pass through tax exemption policies aimed at companies, providing incentives for kindergartens and company welfare.
On the maternity front, we want to introduce one year of real contributions for each child, for a maximum of three years of reduction in the retirement age, and the equivalence of family assistance activity to work activity, also for social security purposes. Furthermore, from a fiscal point of view, a system that takes into account children and large families needs to be strengthened in Italy.
One wonders why it was not done in the now past legislature which also began with similar promises for the family by the center left. The faces are the same, is it another election Hoax?