Enrico Letta demonstrated with his keynote speech that he was a skilful politician capable of navigating the many obstacles placed in his path both by the heterogeneous parties that make up his majority, and by the opposition forces, above all the M5S, ready to mobilize the square against the mess. The sense of the revitalization project that it proposes to Italy lies not so much in the emergency economic measures that it announced to give the agonizing Italian economy some breathing room, starting with the suspension of the IMU installment in June, but in the reforms of politics and of the entire public machine which are the real obstacle to a virtuous recovery of production and employment, especially among young people.
In fact, twice, after having listed what in his opinion are the most urgent emergency measures, Letta underlined that these are indispensable, but alone they would not be sufficient, as a real "new phase in the life of the Republic". it can only be opened with a profound reform of the institutions and of politics so that both can regain "authority" and therefore be able to speak to Italians with a language of truth and gain their trust. In fact, it is precisely the political part that is the most precise and toughest in the speech of the new prime minister. The indications on cutting the costs of politics are precise, starting with the so-called electoral reimbursements, and above all on the need to reform the Constitution in many points (perfect bicameralism, reorganization of the municipalities and the Regions, electoral law) as well as on the change of parties with respect to which the implementation of the art is invoked. 49 of the Constitution on the internal democracy of political formations. On these issues in particular, Letta explicitly said that if significant steps forward have not been made in 18 months, he and his government will draw the necessary consequences.
From a more strictly economic point of view, Letta was a little more compiling on the things to do, citing everything that should be done, putting the problem of work first, which is missing for everyone, but above all for young people, but without indicating precisely where and how to find the necessary resources, especially in order to honor the strongly reaffirmed affirmation of the need to respect the objectives of reorganizing the public finances. Of course, it is hoped that Europe will be able to widen the rigor, however it does not seem that very strong help can come from Brussels, especially if it is a question of financing current expenditure such as that deriving from the abolition of the IMU or from the accommodation of all expatriates . It will then be necessary to find the resources to reduce the tax burden on labor and businesses, to waive the expected increase in VAT and Tarsu, and to implement the already existing guarantee fund for credit to small and medium-sized enterprises.
What does this long to-do list mean? Letta stressed that "Italy dies of austerity alone" and it is true, but the problem is how to get out of the squeeze without alarming the markets and therefore without running the risk of bringing the spread back to the levels of a year and a half ago. Economy Minister Saccomanni has already said on several occasions that on the one hand it is necessary to maintain Italy's full credibility in order to try to bring the spread towards 100 points and thus eliminate the credit crunch which is the main cause of the recessionary spiraling of the our economy, and that the revival of development can only be achieved through a recomposition of the various items of the public budget, eliminating unproductive expenditure and concentrating on those useful for growth.
In addition, little space was dedicated to the need to recover competitiveness both in the industrial and service sectors. And this issue directly calls into question the trade unions which have been invited to act together with companies to tackle this problem. But it is an invitation that in past years has never been fully accepted.
In conclusion, it cannot be said that Letta wanted to totally disavow what was done by the Monti government which, on the contrary, is considered an indispensable premise for now moving on to a second phase in which a more robust development should be added to the recovery. To make this transition possible and credible, a policy of reform of politics and institutions is essential. Letta has spurred politics to abandon the old ways of acting, the ancient closures, to accept the challenge of change which must start above all from the way of being of the parties themselves to involve the institutions ensuring a strengthening of the executive, a simplification of the legislative process , and in general a reduction of the costs of the functioning of the State. Moreover , only significant progress in this direction would strengthen the country 's credibility with domestic and international investors making them easily accept even a transitory increase in the deficit and public debt .
