President Bonomi briefly illustrated it to Prime Minister Conte during the States General. The programmatic basis of the new presidency of Confindustria is contained in one volume “Italy 2030” presented Thursday in Assolombarda by the vice president Antonio Calabrò, with Renato Carli and Marcello Messori as editors of the volume.
It is an in-depth analysis entrusted to numerous scholars, experts and entrepreneurs which highlights not only the ancient and structural ills of our economy, but also offers suggestions on “what to do” and “how to do it” to make a breakthrough capable of bringing Italy back in step with the more developed countries and therefore occupying the role it deserves in Europe and in the world. A role that the population - capable of making sacrifices as seen in the fight against Covid-19 - and the companies themselves that were able to overcome the previous crisis of 2008-2009 with their advanced point of view, amply deserve.
From the point of view of analysis, the shortcomings identified and the objectives proposed are those widely known: foster business development, enhance innovation, focus on environmental but also social sustainability, mitigate income inequalities, reform the Public Administration.
For each chapter there are innovative indications that frame the individual proposals in a pro-European framework given that businesses are well aware that their home market is all of Europe and therefore there is a very low rejection of the sovereignists, of those who preach a return to the autarkic Italy of the Fascist period. Furthermore, we are well aware that curing the country's ancient and recent ills after more than twenty years of stagnation and low productivity requires a relatively long time.
It is true that, as the Governor of the Bank of Italy recalled, Visco in the meeting of Villa Pamphili, that including short-term projects in a clear long-term strategy positively affects the expectations of consumers and entrepreneurs who have to decide to invest, and therefore improves the climate of confidence in the economy's prospects. But our fellow citizens do not seem to be aware of this, while politicians do not have the courage to adopt these positions. For this reason it would have been good if newspapers and TV had paid more attention to the Governor's words.
And indeed the problem is how to convey the consent of the citizen-voters, towards forward-looking programs and projects. It is true that in many cases certain reforms and certain innovations have immediate costs and more distant benefits over time. With a political system sick with presentism, in perpetual fibrillation over a survey, suffering from communication bulimia, willing to say the most senseless things in order to make news, it is very difficult to formulate strategies and policies that need a medium-term horizon to be effective.
Of course, we need to encourage the political class and the ruling class more generally to think generously about the long term, but this hope does not seem sufficient. We have to find a way coagulate a vast consensus around a program of "rebirth" of our country. A program based on two key concepts: ensuring adequate protection against dangers of whatever nature they may be, and from wherever they may come from; convince our fellow citizens that one cannot live on subsidies but that we need to mobilize to have forward-looking projects that should aim not so much at giving everyone money, but at offering the majority of citizens the prospect of being satisfied with what they want to do.
The fundamental problem is that Italians are fearful of innovation and reforms because they think they risk losing what they have so far, without being sure of being able to reach a better position. Confindustria's project to overcome this obstacle focuses on a reform of welfare and in particular of the labor market in order to be able protect all those who will be forced to move from declining sectors to new booming sectors. So we need to review the current confusing legislation on employment centers and training to ensure those who lose their jobs not only an income but also adequate training to be able to relocate to places where more advanced technological knowledge is required.
And then there is an essential political question which has already placed the new presidency of Confindustria on a collision course not only with the government but also with a large part of the opposition which is lingering on unrealistic anti-European positions.
In the desperation of finding itself squeezed both from the government side where the weight of the 5 Stars is strong, and from the opposition side where there are still those who think we could do it alone and that we don't need the money from the ESM, Confindustria rediscovers the intermediate bodies e relaunches a “negotiating democracy” which should break the encirclement of opposing demagoguery, lead political forces to think about concrete issues, bring positions closer with continuous negotiation, so as to remove the obstacles that keep our economy blocked.
There are examples in our history of positive roles of intermediate bodies when, as in the case ofCosta-Di Vittorio agreement after the war: Ciampi-unions in 1993, have managed to represent the general interest and are not that of their own category. Then there was a long phase of corporative degeneration of the intermediate institutions which in fact have been shelved. But the decision-making leadership has not worked, and therefore now it is proposed to try to restore strength and coherence to the government and the parties, channeling a little consensus on strategies and projects for recovery, precisely through the intermediate bodies.
But are the intermediate bodies ready to become bearers of general interests? Bonomi's Confindustria seems to have understood that flattening the lobbying dimension alone does not lead very far. He therefore proposes looking up at strategic choices to create an environment conducive to the market and growth, as happened after the war when even within Confindustria the battle was won against those who opposed opening up to international trade for fear of competition.
This is the design that Bonomi brought to Conte. Anything but "the mountain that gives birth to the classic little mouse", as the Travaglio newspaper titled, which, blinded by the pro-government partisanship, does not even notice the great innovations that are advancing in the Italian political and cultural panorama.
