"The time has come to break down, gradually but at a sustained and constant pace, the public debt wall accumulated over the decades. This is the appeal launched by the President of the Republic, Giorgio Napolitano, during the ceremony for the presentation of the Cavaliere del Lavoro insignia at the Quirinale.
According to the Head of State, “the difficulties are there for all to see” and “Europe looks with concern at these difficulties”, awaiting “every necessary integration of the decisions already adopted and urgent choices of structural reform and growth stimulus”.
At this moment “a strong, clear assumption of responsibility is required – continues Napolitano – widely shared, I add, so that it is more credible, more guaranteed in its implementation effectiveness. I cannot therefore silence my anguish in noting that the political conditions for this wider sharing have not yet occurred".
The President then renewed "the simplest of appeals: that everyone do their part", because "we must have the concern to give convincing answers to our European partners, to the European institutions and together - a now burning need - to a large part of the popular classes, of the labor force, and above all of the young".
The Head of State refers in particular to the "issue of youth unemployment and frustration“, which “must be at the center of our concerns: and I am speaking of concerns for social cohesion and also for democratic balance and civil coexistence”.
For these reasons, Napolitano concludes his speech by “asking all social and political forces for foresight. The risk of misleading electoral calculations must be prevented.
