Mattarella, the end of the year speech: “The Republic belongs to those who pay taxes”. And the message to young people: “Deaths on the road are a tragedy”

“We are the Republic”. It is the phrase that sums up the meaning of New Year’s speech by Sergio Mattarella. The eighth of the President of the Republic, the first of the second term. Seventeen minutes. Standing, in the neoclassical wing of the Quirinale: an unprecedented location. “The Republic is in the civic sense of those who pay taxesbecause this serves to make Italy work and therefore for the common good”. It can be read as a message to those in the government who think they are winking at tax evaders.

The other caveat is on the Covid “unfortunately not yet defeated definitively”. From the virus, he says, we have drawn lessons “not to be forgotten”. Ergo, the good rules that contained the epidemic – vaccines and faith in science in the first place – must be maintained.

There right in government for the rest it should be seen as a physiological fact, of normal alternation, “of a mature, complete democracy”. Mattarella recalls that “in the space of a few years, almost all the political forces present in Parliament have taken turns in government, in various parliamentary coalitions”. And they all had to measure themselves “with the difficulties of governing”. This also applies to those who have just entered the control room after years of opposition. In short, sooner or later populism of every color collides with the realism of governance, which requires “recognizing the complexity”.

It says verbatim:

“The concreteness of reality has summoned everyone to responsibility”.

Mattarella spoke to the real country. unifying intervention. Of republican wisdom. An invitation to trust. After all, Italy has withstood all the shocks. We have grown economically this year too. But you need a vision to grow more and better.

Comment on the election of a premier woman “as a novelty of great social and cultural significance, which had long since matured”. The other protagonists of his speech are i young. The Head of State invites us to look at tomorrow with their eyes. Women and young peopletherefore, and not by chance, because they are too often mistreated, poorly paid, which shouldn’t happen in a modern country.

He praises young people for theirs commitment to the environment, for the desire to build a better world. She does it with an echoing passage Aldo Moro: “We must stay within our time with intelligence and passion. Thinking of giving up modernity is not only a mistake, it is also an illusion. Change must be guided. Innovation must be interpreted to improve our living conditions”. An invitation to preserve the spid culture, so to speak. And the exhortation to politics to invest in the environment, digital culture, schools, universities and scientific research. The Pnrr “pushes towards these goals”.

Mattarella was very impressed by many young people who have lost their lives on the roads, the leading cause of death among young people aged between 15 and 24, “because of speed, lightness, consumption of alcohol or drugs”. He launches an appeal to them: “When you drive you have your life and that of others in your hands. Don’t destroy it for a moment of imprudence. Don’t cancel your future”.

It has been a year of upheavals. There war. The blows of the tail Covid. L’inflation. The price explosion gas. The fall of Draghi government. First time one political vote in the fall. And the first time of a woman – Giorgia Meloni – in Palazzo Chigi. A year that started “unexpectedly for me” commented the re-election at the end of January.

He reiterated that “the compass” is the Constitution. And these days it is not repeated enough, given that there is a desire to modify it, both in a presidential sense and in a differentiated version. “Respecting him is our primary duty: mine too”. An unequivocal message on the 75th anniversary.

Mattarella defends the public health, “as an irreplaceable garrison of unity in the country”. The Work is the other major issue, the lack of which “takes away rights and dignity. The price we pay for unemployment and precariousness is still too high”. There child povertyhas quadrupled since 2008. And the north south differences they injure the right to equality. “Once again the Constitution guides us, where it prescribes that the Republic must remove the economic and social obstacles that harm people’s rights, without distinction”.

The war unleashed by Russia is “crazy”. “We must concentrate our efforts so that 2023 is the year of the end of hostilities”. He quoted Pope Francis, who exhorts peace, to whom he expressed his condolences for the death of Pope Ratzinger. “Immense quantities of financial resources are burned for armaments which, if destined for world hunger, the fight against disease or poverty, would be a relief for humanity”. The responsibility lies with those who attacked – Russia – not with those who defend themselves. One cannot but be on the side of Ukraine. “Let’s think about it: if the aggression were successful, others would follow, with other wars, from unpredictable borders”. Here too I praise the young people. The women of Iran, the Afghan ones, the Russians who defy repression.

Meloni always repeats nation. Mattarella Republic. “Our homeland,” she specifies. It is an important distinction. The Republic is the working Italy and the one looking for a job. The one in solidarity and the one that creates employment. “Our companies, at every level, have been able to restart with momentum”.

So once again Mattarella absorbs tensions, avoiding those who exasperate them instead. He leads the country, albeit urging it to have “a vision of the future, plan tomorrow with courage”. It invites him to be modern and supportive at the same time.

We are the Republic. No one feels left out.