The real country is not celebrating

It is the longest-serving government in the history of the Republic: they are celebrating, but Italy is not. In four years, Meloni has broken her promises and left the country poorer and more vulnerable. Italians are worse off, and the figures bear this out. They have crippled industry: production has been falling for three consecutive years and company insolvencies have been on the rise for two years – results partly driven by the failure of measures such as ‘Transizione 5.0’. The tax burden is at its highest since 2014, achieved by the very people who had promised to cut taxes. Growth remains at a standstill, business insolvencies have been rising for two years, and the country is only out of recession thanks to the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR) that was inherited. They could have changed Italy, but they squandered the opportunity. They have hollowed out pay packets: real wages have fallen by 6.1 per cent since 2021. And that is indeed a record: the worst figure among the major advanced economies. Inflation has now risen back to 3.3 per cent, driven by soaring energy costs (+17 per cent). In plain terms, this means households struggling to put food on the table and young people fleeing to build a future for themselves. In Bari, they’ll be toasting their own survival. But the real country – the one of shuttered factories and depleted pay packets – hasn’t been invited to the party.