ROME. «The family is the vital nucleus of society. Article 29 of the Constitution expressly recognizes its nature as a natural society pre-existing to the State and affirms its rights. A place for sharing and transmitting values, it marks the relationship between generations and is at the center of the development of the community’s feelings, as well as representing a central element of its continuity ». This was assured by the head of state, Sergio Mattarella, on the occasion of the International Day of the Family, proclaimed by the UN. «A day – says the president – which recalls the need to reflect, in depth, on the concrete problems of families, on the measures necessary to reduce the gap that leads so many people to poverty and exclusion. The first and most effective element of equilibrium on the social level, the family deserves supportive policies, in the awareness of the role it plays also in the fundamental aim of the recovery of the birth rate ».
“We come from a season dramatically marked by the pandemic – observes Mattarella -: families have been hit by grief, suffering and the heavy social consequences caused by the inevitable containment measures: this aspect increases the need for attention to them to achieve an effective restart “.
On the occasion of the day, also the President of the Senate, Elisabetta Casellati, underlines that “families are the first and irreplaceable nucleus of growth and training in our society. They have always represented the real backbone of Italy. During the pandemic emergency they were an extraordinary barrier to the crisis but they paid a very high toll in terms of limitations, economic hardships, suffering, new frailties ». Today, says Casellati, “they must be the pillars of the country’s reconstruction”. Giving everyone the opportunity to build a family life project “must be a categorical imperative: work for women, certainties for young people, birth incentives, social services for children: only by investing in these fronts can we stop the demographic winter and building the foundations for a future made up of progress, social justice, well-being ».