Issues
The Golden Rule: Stop believing politicians when they say that societal issues are too complex for you to understand.
You don’t need to be a scientist to understand that there is climate change, nor be a policeman to know that violence against women is still a devastating problem in Italy. It is also easy to understand that the Italian government’s refusal to invest EU funds in building new factories and developing new technologies is wasting the opportunity to create millions of new jobs for young adults.
Most of Italy's social and economic problems can be effectively addressed through:
- The passing and enforcement of new laws by legislators
- An intelligent government investment policy in the Italian economy
Over and over again, the far-right governing coalition has made it clear that they are not interested in enacting laws unless those laws favor their financial supporters and/or increase their electoral base. It would be easy to pass and enforce new laws to ensure equal pay for women and combat violence against them, but far-right politicians are primarily concerned with helping business owners who profit more by paying women less than men.
IMPROVING THE ITALIAN ECONOMY
Why are the economies of other EU countries improving while the Italian economy continues to lag? Although politicians will tell you that understanding ways to improve the Italian economy is too complicated for us, the economic solutions are easy to understand and implement.
Simple economics: Economic growth is driven by consumer spending and business investment. Consumers will increase their spending if they have money to spend which requires that Italy help create more jobs and pay workers a fair wage instead of allowing women to earn 20.7% less than men in the private sector.
Italy received 194 billion euros from the Union Recovery Fund, more than any other EU country, because in addition to the negative economic impact of the pandemic, Italian’s productivity growth has been flat for two decades, a trend which coincides with the slowdown in public and private investments since 1999. There are many objectives to be achieved using the 194 billion euros, including the modernization of Italian roads and bridges, the fight against climate change, the introduction of new digital technologies and accessibility, regional and urban development, employment and social inclusion, agriculture and rural development, maritime and fisheries policies, research and innovation and humanitarian aid. What all these investments have in common is that they will improve the Italian economy by creating more jobs so that people have more money to spend, which is the fuel of economic growth.
The Meloni government has spent only 54% of the 194 billion euros. In some cases, Meloni has even cut funding, such as when she denied 20 billion euros intended to repair infrastructure such as roads and bridges in southern Italy.
FASCISM, IT'S TIME TO WAKE UP
Democracies are no longer killed by coups, but instead they are destroyed by democratically elected leaders subverting their country’s democracy from the inside. There are many political leaders across the Western world who are trying to transform their countries into an autocratic/fascist state. Hiding behind the labels of “populism”, “nationalism” and “conservatism”, people like Trump, Marie Le Pen in France, Alice Weidel in Germany, Riikka Purra in Finland, Klaus Iohannis in Romania, Dragan Marković Palma in Serbia and Meloni are examples of political leaders dedicated to transforming their countries into fascist/autocratic states.
While it is relatively easy to see that other European countries have become, and will soon become autocracies, most Italians refuse to see what is right in front of their eyes. Meloni is clearly using the same playbook of democracy-killing leaders: spreading “us-versus-them” propoganda to make different segments of society hate and fear other segments of society, triggering the nostalgia for a fairy tale past that never existed; and emotional appeals especially to aggrieved members of a middle class.
1- Proposed Constitution changes:
2- Proposed censorship laws applied to any media critical of Meloni or FDL
3- Meloni has a blind eye to the open and blatant corruption of government officials and businesses.
4- Meloni’s government has effectively destroyed the autonomy of the judiciary including eliminating cases brought against office holders and keeping influence peddling to a minimum.
5- Government money is being used to support Gioventù Nazionale, a Mussolini-like youth group; Nazi salute and all
If you are unable to see who Meloni really is because you can’t believe that a woman would lead an autocratic movement, pay attention to the fact that women are leading autocratic movements throughout Europe. In addition to Meloni, Le Pen, Weidel and Purra have been put at the center of the political party trying to destroy the country’s democracy of power mostly because they are women so it is more difficult to compare a woman to Mussolini, Orbàn and Lukashenko. This a political tactic called “gender washing”.
UNEMPLOYMENT AND UNDEREMPLOYMENT AMONG YOUNG ITALIANS
–23% for Italians under 25 years old
– 11% for Italians between 25 and 34 years old
The most meaningful way to analyze the employment situation of a country’s young people is the NEET rate which represents the percentage of people who are neither in education, employed, nor in training. As of January 1, 2023, European Union countries had an average NEET rate of 11.7% for citizens aged 15 to 29. As of 1 January 2023, Italy shared with Romania the embarrassing record of the highest NEET rate for young people aged 15 to 29, at 19%.
If we want to guarantee young people a better economic future, we must elect different politicians.
HEALTHCARE SYSTEM
Access to quality care and waiting times are the major problems of the Italian healthcare system. According to the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies, the main challenges for the Italian healthcare system are directly related to the need to address historical underinvestments in healthcare personnel, modernize obsolete infrastructure and equipment, and strengthen the IT infrastructure.
To solve the problems of the Italian healthcare system, we must elect different politicians.
GENDER PAY GAP IN ITALY
Women employed in private companies earn 20.7% less than their male colleagues in the same job. Although the Italian Constitution prohibits any form of discrimination based on gender, and there are laws intended to protect women against pay discrimination, those laws are not enforced. The most effective way to reduce the gender pay gap is for the government to require companies to adopt clear and transparent compensation policies and to impose sanctions on employers who do not comply with these policies.
If we are to have any hope that employers will be forced to pay women fairly, we need to elect different politicians.
VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN
Thirty-one percent of Italian women have suffered physical and/or sexual violence. Despite the implementation of new laws in 2023 to punish violence against women, violence against women continues to be a horrific problem because of lack of enforcement of laws.
Violence against women not only directly and negatively affects the violated woman and her family, but also seriously damages the Italian economy because there is a direct link between violence against women and a significant decrease in female employment. The physical, psychological and emotional violence women experience also makes it more difficult for them to pursue or maintain employment, further increasing the number of days women are unable to work due to recovering from a violent attack. In 2023, all these factors have resulted in an estimated cost of 13 billion euros for the Italian economy.
To effectively reduce violence against women, we need to elect more politicians.
CLIMATE CHANGE
Italy is ranked 44th in the latest Climate Change Performance Index, down 15 positions compared to the previous year, and ranking among the worst performing countries overall. The European Union Recovery Fund provided Italy with 65 billion euros dedicated to the fight against climate change. The 65 billion euros should have been invested in the construction of new facilities for the production of items such as solar panels, batteries, wind and hydroelectric power generation systems, in the installation of charging stations for electric cars, in supporting the production of hydrogen, in the modernization of zero-emission railways and public transport systems, as well as in many other ways to make Italy more energy efficient and less dependent on fossil fuels.
Italy has spent only a fraction of the 65 billion euros, mainly because the Brothers of Italy (FdL) and the Lega are more interested in protecting companies that support such those political parties and that operate in the fossil fuel sector.
If we want to fight climate change while creating millions of new jobs, we need to elect diverse politicians.
PENSION
Italy spends more money to support pensions than any of the other 38 modern democratic countries. With one of the oldest populations in the world, low birth and employment rates, Italy has too few workers to support a growing number of retirees, many of whom left their jobs when the system allowed much earlier retirement than today. The bleak outlook for state finances is compounded by persistently slow economic growth and public debt that at the end of last year amounted to 150% of gross domestic product, the second highest in the European Union after Greece.
The pension problem can only be solved by improving the slow Italian economy and creating more jobs, in order to lighten the heavy burden currently placed on young workers, who are subject to tax rates so high that a positive economic future for them seems be beyond imagination. Meloni has spent only a fraction of the European Union’s recovery fund, which is expected to improve the Italian economy and create more jobs.
To solve the pension problem, we need to elect different politicians.
LGBTQ RIGHTS
Denying the same rights to people belonging to the LGBTQ community has far-reaching negative consequences that go beyond the simple protection of individual rights. Denying gay couples the opportunity to adopt a child limits the availability of adoption for the 35,000 Italian children living in orphanages and foster families. Employment discrimination against the LGBTQ community results in fewer opportunities to find work and receiving lower wages than non-LGBTQ people. Hate crimes and hate speech make members of the LGBTQ community feel less safe and more anxious during normal daily activities.
Italy is one of the few countries in Western Europe that does not have stringent laws to protect members of the LGBTQ community. There are numerous reasons why politicians refuse to enact such laws, but the primary reason is that leaders of the far-right political parties do not believe that members of the LGBTQ community should be treated fairly.
In March 2023, the Meloni government ordered Milan to officially stop registering both parents in same-sex couples in city registers. Not only were gay couples unable to adopt, but this government directive disenfranchised gay parents in many ways, such as disallowing medical care for children for whom they are responsible.
If we want to make progress in eliminating discrimination against the LGBTQ community, we need to elect diverse politicians.
SUPPRESSION OF POLITICAL OPPOSITION
Meloni is proposing a change to the Italian constitution that would award 55% of seats in the Parliament to the political party that wins the most votes in an election, and that would elect the Prime Minister by direct vote. According to Meloni’s plan, if there were an election today, Meloni would be Prime Minister with control of 55% of Parliament simply because she and FdL won the majority of votes in the election. In other words, it would be the end of parliamentary democracy in Italy.
SUPPRESSION OF FREEDOM OF THE PRESS
Meloni is proposing laws that would censor news articles critical of her and FdL.
SYSTEMIC CONFLICT OF INTEREST BETWEEN POLITICIANS AND PRIVATE COMPANIES
Ultimately, an authoritarian/fascist government requires the development of strong conflicts of interest between politicians and private business interests. Orbàn is the perfect example of an autocrat granting financial favors to his relatives and those who will support his autocracy. Meloni is transparently doing the same. It is no coincidence that Italy, Hungary and Austria are the only EU countries that do not have a law regulating conflicts between the parliamentary role and private activities.
SUPPORT FOR MUSSOLINI-LIKE YOUTH GROUPS
The success of an autocratic/fascist movement requires brainwashing young people into believing that they should not think for themselves and should never challenge autocratic/fascist leaders. Meloni is openly supporting Giovantù Nationale which is an Italian youth organization that is brainwashing young Italians to believe the propaganda of nationalism, populism and conservatism.
In 2023, Salvini said the silent part out loud: “The left should give up, we will govern this country for the next ten years.” If we don’t stop walking in our sleep and start paying attention, the Italy we love will look more and more like Mussolini’s Italy.