National Legacoop, Gamberino elected new president: “Put cooperation back at the center of the country’s agenda”

Simone Gamberini is the new president of the national Legacoop. The Management appointed by the 41st Congress of the cooperative organization unanimously elected him. Gamberini succeeds Mauro Lusetti, who was elected in May 2014. Bolognese, 49 years old, since 2020 General Manager of Coopfond, the mutual fund of Legacoop, Gamberini was Director of Legacoop Bologna in previous years and, from 2004 to 2014, Mayor of Casalecchio di Reno.

«The decisive challenge for the cooperative – underlined Gamberini in his speech – concerns its own distinctive identity, the vocation to keep together the individual interests of the members and the collective ones of the cooperatives and communities, to respond to the needs of equality and protection of the weakest people. With the usual bet: to generate efficiency and solidarity on a daily basis, to continue the exercise of the social function entrusted to us by the Constitution and to help rebuild a new social lift, which must guarantee another relationship between quality of life and quality of work, reduce the current gender and generation gaps and promote equal opportunities for participation and growth for all. In these terms, the cooperative movement can participate as a true protagonist and actor in the European-style social economy. By putting cooperation back at the center of the country’s political and economic agenda, we stand as candidates to represent an opportunity for its inclusive and sustainable growth”.

Today, more than 10,000 cooperatives join Legacoop with an overall production value (as of 2021) of 82 billion and 609 million euros, around 465,000 employees and 7.4 million members. After a strong recovery in 2021 that recorded a substantial recovery of pre-Covid levels, in 2022 for companies adhering to Legacoop there was a slowdown in growth linked to the increase in costs and growing pessimism on the evolution of the Italian economy. However, demand is holding up: 45% of cooperatives have increased the value of production and almost 80% close the year with an operating profit.