The land of sleepwalkers. Perhaps the most brutal photo of 2023 was taken by Censis, who describes Italy as an aging, fearful, discouraged country where no one thinks about tomorrow anymore. As Italians’ confidence reached historic lows, Giorgia Meloni’s government reiterated the heavy legacy of previous governments throughout the year. However, this excuse may no longer be valid. There are many pain points to solve: Here are the most urgent ones.

1 – Stellantis, the decline of the Italian car

The strangest metaphor for the end of the world was the sale of the Maserati factory in Grugliasco by the Stellantis group on Immobiliare.it in November 2023.

Yes, because, as Fabrizio Gatti wrote, the sale of the Turin plant symbolizes the decline of the Italian automotive industry. A reality that allows us to become the world’s 5th industrial power and provide jobs and a future for millions of Italians.

Already in 2022, we had fallen to ninth place in world automobile production with almost one million fewer vehicles than in 2000. The comparison, made three years after the merger between FCA and Peugeot, is also not encouraging. Between 2024 and 2026, 13 new vehicle models will be produced in Italy, in addition to 24 new vehicle models for French factories. Moreover, even the new electric panda will be produced in Serbia, not here. All of this took place in the deafening silence of much of the union and political world.

2 – We are losing the electricity game

If the Italian automotive industry is in trouble, the situation of related sectors is not good either. This is evidenced, for example, by the Magneti Marelli crisis, but more importantly by the delays in the transition to electrification.

Cars of the “future” will need efficient batteries. To build these, large industrial settlements called “gigafactories” are needed, where public and private investments can combine. In France, one has already been opened, which has been fully operational since last May, due to the fact that the State is a member of the Stellantis group (unlike Italy). Only the Caserta plant is currently active in Italy, but with a pilot project and the amount of gigabytes that can be delivered (by 2026) is significantly lower than that of the French plant. The other large gigafactory should be established in Termoli and become operational in 2026.

Between now and 2027, our battery production will not be comparable to our European partners such as France and Germany, or to countries such as Poland and Hungary, which were considered “emerging” until a few years ago.

3 – Delays related to green energy and communities

Renewable energy communities are communities of people living in the same area who have decided to share renewable and clean energy. In order for something that has been an experiment so far to become a reality, as we mentioned before, a decree was needed, which took years to complete and had to be issued today. But the delay presented us with a paradox: We were among the first to try these, and now we are truly behind.

After all, it’s an analogy we also experience in renewable energy production: New power plant installations peaked in 2011 and have decreased significantly over the years.

One paradox is enough to understand what is wrong: while it took several months to build the Piombino regasification plant, it took 14 years to finish the nearshore wind farm in Taranto. In Italy, it takes six years to install a wind farm and five years to install a photovoltaic park.

4 – A Republic with precarious workers and low wages

In Italy, wages have stagnated since 1991; This is a unique situation in the West. A dynamic influenced by many factors, especially an economic model based on reducing labor costs rather than increasing productivity.

The government has tried to raise Italians’ wages through measures such as reducing the tax wedge or the “reform” of Irpef, but has stayed away from solving structural problems such as the introduction of an hourly minimum wage. Not only that: just as Istat documented the boom in the fight against poverty, he chose to eliminate the citizen’s income and cut a million euros in the fight against poverty.

But the issue of reform of employment centers and vocational retraining is not being addressed at all, even on the eve of the artificial intelligence revolution, which risks creating large numbers of unemployed people, at least in the short term.

Meanwhile, the State is supported by hundreds of thousands of temporary employees in all branches of public administration: if they went on strike en masse tomorrow, the country would immediately come to a standstill.

5 – Family and migration: dreams and reality

The government that promised “zero landings” was completely unprepared for the migration boom recorded in 2023, and many mayors found themselves alone in managing a ground-breaking crisis. However, there is a risk that the situation will not improve even in 2024. First of all, the flow of immigrants is unlikely to stop. Secondly, the government’s leading European “friends” are certainly not in favor of their redistribution.

Additionally, large reception centers were focused on and the reception network spread across the region was mobilized. There have been major cuts in basic services for the integration of new arrivals, which are essential to prevent the record wave from turning into a social problem. Only emergency logic prevails.

Even for the family, one of the government’s strongest workhorses, things are no better. In Italy, one in four children is at risk of poverty, while almost 20 percent of families with three or more children face poverty every day. Additionally, in this case, we intervened with buffer measures such as bonuses for kindergartens.

For example, resources will be needed for more decent wages, full employment for women, and more public nurseries. However, the impression is that even in 2024, childbearing will be a luxury that not everyone can afford. With all due respect to the so-called “traditional family” and its supporters.

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