A Maneuver without the South
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economy
NoonNovember 25, 2022 – 08:11
In 71 pages (and 136 articles) no reference is ever made to the Mezzogiorno
from Paolo Grassi
«I am convinced that the turning point we have in mind is also the best opportunity to return to placing Italy at the center of the agenda southern question. The South is no longer seen as a problem, but as an opportunity for development for the whole country». Thus, Giorgia Meloni, on October 25, in the Chamber, during the government policy statements (just formed). In other words: the Mezzogiorno must be helped and relaunched within the ambit of national development policies. Thesis, however, dear to an increasingly large slice of southerners. The fact is that on Monday evening the Council of Ministers approved the Maneuver for 2023. And in the draft of the budget bill for next year (updated at 12.20 on Wednesday) in 71 pages of text for 136 articles the words never appear South, Noon And South. For heaven’s sake, this does not mean that the executive has not thought about the “question” – preparing the provision – but it certainly has not set specific strategies. Unless we want to imagine that the (first) decisions adopted on the citizen’s income – whose beneficiaries are overwhelmingly in the South – represent the start of a strategy for the revival of employment; or that the marebonus is a driving force for development dedicated to those who boast more coasts.
For the moment, however, the Mezzogiorno remains… outside the budget law for 2023; and in the South there are those who, like the governor Vincenzo De Luca, even fear “resource cuts”. Self “yes they save 700 million destined for income – explains the president of the Campania Region – this money must remain in the South. If we spread it nationally once again we have a loss of resources for the South”. We will see. The fact is that just a few months ago, before the summer break, Bank of Italy published a dossier on the “North-South divide” and on the necessary “public intervention”. Over the last decade, wrote the analysts of the Via Nazionale Institute, «the differences in economic development at the territorial level have widened even more: the South has seen its economic weight steadily decrease, highlighting a growing difficulty in employing the available workforce, a reduction in the accumulation of capital and a lower growth of the population compared to the more advanced areas of the country where migratory flows are concentrated». An alarming picture, to which is added an appeal to intervene quickly and decisively: «The large delays in the endowment of infrastructures and in the quality of public services provided both by local authorities and by the State through its peripheral branches also weigh on the economic difficulties of the South». These gaps “in part reflect a shortage of resources that worsened in the decade preceding the outbreak of the pandemic, during which national fiscal policy was mainly oriented towards consolidating public accounts”. Therefore a reference “to the still partial definition of the essential levels of performance in the provision of public services and of adequate equalization mechanisms aimed at guaranteeing their satisfaction”. At the same time, continues Bankitalia, “the indicators available on the efficiency, effectiveness and correctness of administrative action in the South appear significantly worse than the Italian average”. In the light of this, «economic policy priorities should be oriented towards some main objectives. The first concerns the improvement of the quality of public action». In short, “a more effective structure of the governance of public interventions would be needed, a marked improvement in the quality of the inputs, human and technological, of the Public Administration, as well as a stronger orientation towards the achievement of results, also by resorting to incentive mechanisms”. It would help. Precisely.
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November 25, 2022 | 08:11
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