Enrico Letta intervenes at Skuola.net illustrating the main points of the PD program on Work, Education, Environment, Rights. That is, the issues that are most close to the heart of the younger generations called to vote on 25 September. Among the objectives, a reform of the internships, the lowering of the age of youth independence, the lengthening of compulsory schooling
“Young people are at the heart of our program for the next five years.” It is the message that the secretary of the Democratic Party, Enrico Letta, wanted to send to all the girls and boys, in view of the elections on 25 September. The occasion was a direct confrontation with the students (and not only) hosted by Skuola.net – as part of “FuZure”, the format created together with Binario F, Meta’s community hub dedicated to the development of digital skills in Italy – during which the leader of the center-left coalition answered the main questions that Generation Z is asking itself in recent weeks, the one that in many cases will be called to the polls for the first time.
Work: age of independence from 30 to 24 with rental bonuses for young people, paid internships, tax-free contracts
One of the cornerstones of the “proposal” of the PD for the youngest revolves around the themes of work. “This – underlines Letta – is exactly what I decided to leave my previous job and go back to politics for. Precisely to help Italy overcome that gap that I have touched firsthand. When I was in Paris I heard many Italian students who did not want to return because their first job would have been an internship or an unpaid internship ».
But, specifically, what do you have in mind to do to help kids find their size? «Our work plan – summarizes the dem secretary – is made up of three chapters: first of all we want to eliminate the fake internships as the first entry into the world of work, the internship must only be within a real career path. The work, then, must be paid, so we propose a tax-free first employment contract, which therefore meets the companies, and with a decent wage for the worker. Finally, we want to give children the opportunity to leave the house: our goal for the next legislature is to bring the average age at which they leave the house from 30 to 24, bringing it into line with the standards of other major European countries ».
Two other proposals included in the PD program also go in the same direction: an incentive of 2,000 euros for rents for young people, as “independence is essential for wanting to do things”, and a “dowry” for 18-year-olds, “a boost at the start for a boy who comes out of school, to set up his own business, to go and live alone, to open a business“.
Education: compulsory schooling from infancy to high school diploma and passing the humanistic and scientific knowledge division
Everything, however, must start with adequate training. A first step, says Letta, is “the lengthening of compulsory schooling: you have to go to school very early but also lengthen after the age of 16, otherwise the message is given that the eighth grade is sufficient. While in the job market of the future it will be necessary to have a much heavier backpack. At least a high school diploma will be needed ». Then there is the technological question, with the conversion to 4.0 of 100 thousand classrooms, foreseen thanks to the funds of the PNRR, considered “one of the most important things” of the entire Plan.
But, according to the “democratic” leader, the real challenge is another: to change the model of education. «We studied and were trained – says Letta – having two silos in mind: either you did humanities studies or you did scientific studies. With deep grooves between the various areas. Time has changed, today these Chinese walls that divide the various sectors have to jump. There is an increasing need for people who have a brain formed with the two approaches that are mixed ». According to the PD secretary, the professions most in demand in the near future will be those related to climate change, the protection of personal data, the management of pandemics: “I challenge anyone to argue – he reiterates – that only one of the two approaches is enough to manage them in the best possible way . It will therefore be necessary to give the students the possibility of bridging the two things ».
Environment and Europe, two priorities to keep up with the times
But the GenZ over time has also shown itself to be very attentive to more general issues, which involve everyone. Like those related to the environment. What is the Democratic Party’s view on this? «First of all we must consider – Letta began – that there is no more time. In June, in the European Parliament, all parties found themselves having to vote on the “Fit for 55”, a plan to accelerate the cut of emissions. The PD said yes, many others, especially the right, said no. We must give a sense of the urgency and the dimension from which all this must come, which is the European one ”.
All this, however, must be lived together with the social transition: «If people lose their jobs due to the changes due to the ecological transition, at that point most prefer to focus on the salary and not on the end of the world. We must avoid that there is this alternative: dealing with reaching the end of the month or not reaching the end of the world. This is why continuous resources are needed to accompany the change ».
And he also gives a concrete example, namely the favorable opinion from the PD, to the European Parliament, on the introduction of the “Carbon tax” at the European border: “If we Europeans accelerate the process of reducing emissions – Letta emphasizes – we must be careful that the goods arriving from China or India, produced at a much lower cost, not having to pay too much attention to emissions, do not generate unfair competition. Raising taxes to let those products in is a small example of what it means to social transition ».
Because the European dimension, again, according to the leader of the center-left is today the one to which we pay the most attention: «By now – he says – the world is interconnected. While politics is still too national. It is wrong to put up walls. The most important elections should be the European ones. In the last ten years the most important events have arisen outside our borders: the economic crisis, the migratory crisis, the virus, vaccines, war. All events that are not domestic but external ».
Necessary steps forward on civil rights: from the Ius Scholae to the laws on the end of life and against homotransphobia
Inevitable a mention also to another topic that is very much felt by the new generations: the question of civil rights, which according to Letta “is the issue on which the distinction between sides on the occasion of 25 September is most marked. Our idea of society is the one that needs to make progress. But Italy is behind on many civil rights: we have not approved the Zan Bill, the Ius Scholae, a law on assisted suicide ”, which was requested by the Constitutional Court. The idea that for the next five years an outdated point of view on these topics will be maintained, for the dem secretary “must frighten”: “We – he continues – want to move forward on these issues, which need new rules”. An example above all: “The person must be able to choose how to live love”. More generally, for Letta, the choice will be between «homologation or diversity»: «I – he says – like diversity, it is richness. And the world will have to learn more and more to live with diversity ».