Letters
Letters to the editor •
Demographics are like a coin with two sides, both of which are indispensable
Who has written to the editor-in-chief, Claudio Cerasa
30 SEP 26
Translated by AI
Photo by Franco Debartolo on Unsplash
To the Editor – There is much talk of the centre-left centrists, of how they should act to secure victory for the broad coalition, of how they need to coordinate their efforts to strengthen their electoral position, and so on. But in exactly what sense, and according to what political criteria, would Alessandro Onorato (who, in Antonio Polito’s view, is a complete unknown outside the Ring Road) be considered a centrist?
Luca Rocca
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To the Editor – Among the many accusations levelled at Israel was that of using hunger as a weapon of war, when the army had blocked access to lorries carrying supplies to prevent them from falling into the hands of Hamas and the black market. In Ukraine, the town of Oleshky is at the centre of a serious humanitarian crisis, as Russian forces have been blocking access to food and medicines since 2022, and the remaining population is dying of starvation and disease. Obviously, as Putin is not Jewish like Zelensky, no one is organising ‘flotillas’ to sail up the Dnipro and bring aid to those people.
Giuliano Cazzola
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To the Editor – I have been reading your newspaper for years, even when I do not agree with its political stance. Indeed, it is precisely that distance which forces me each time to focus my thoughts more clearly, just as one squints to see more clearly. A few days ago, in Il Foglio, I came across an analysis of demographic decline and immigration, proposing the idea of a large European agency tasked with selecting the ‘most compatible’ immigrants. A well-structured argument, certainly, but confined within a framework that reduces life to statistics and politics to the management of fears. As someone who comes from the CISL and has spent a career observing society through the faces of working people—not through the charts of financial speculation—I can state this with the frankness of someone who has many years behind them: the problem is not the psychology of the elderly, nor the hard-won prosperity that is said to have made young people lazy. The problem is that, in our attempt to be modern, we have dismantled the social contract that held us together and entrusted everything to the market. We have made work precarious, shifted the burden of care onto families, penalised women and weakened communities. When the fabric of society is torn apart, no amount of perception management can hold it together: decline marches on regardless. Immigration is not a buffer to be meted out sparingly to avoid rejection. It is a structural part of the social contract that we must rebuild. You do not govern by choosing ‘compatible’ people, but by creating the conditions for genuine integration. The CISL tradition does not divide human beings into functional categories: it works to rebuild communities capable of inclusion, because it is only there that life can catch its breath. The real cultural battle is not about persuading people to have children. It is about restoring dignity to work, time to people, a social role to families, and care infrastructure to local communities. The birth rate does not rise through slogans: it rises through justice. I have seen it a thousand times: when a community breaks down, trust declines, participation declines, life declines. When it is rebuilt, children return, families return, the future returns. Demography is not a downward curve: it is a community rising again. Kind regards.
Savino Pezzotta, former general secretary of the CISL
Thank you, dear Pezzotta. However, when it comes to demographics, one cannot claim that the issue lies elsewhere. The problem with demographics is demographics itself: it is about having children and welcoming more legal migrants. The cultural battle is to discuss demographics while recalling that demographics is like a coin with two sides; if one side is omitted, the coin loses its value. Warm regards to you.