The Economist crowns Italy: “It’s the country of the year”

Checco Zalone already said it years ago: “We are a very strong team.” Now they confirm it The Economist e The team. Italy is the country of the year. Not in absolute terms, but in terms of progress in the economy and management of the country on the one hand, sports results and success in the entertainment world. At the beginning of the year, so to speak, no one would have thought that our country could have one of the best vaccination rates in Europe, nor that Matteo Berrettini would reach the final at Wimbledon or that the Mäneskin could win Eurovision. As the cover of Vanity Fair on newsstands says: “We can be heroes».

This year we are the heroes, in football with the European Championship won, with the 40 Olympic medals, above all with a management of a very difficult situation between pandemic and economic crisis, better than others. As mentioned, they are not absolute numbers. The Italian economy is not the first in the world. The public debt remains enormous. The unemployment rate is 9.2% and is higher for women and young people. Poverty has increased in the years of the pandemic. According to the 55th Censis Report in 2020 there are 2 million Italian families in absolute poverty, + 104.8% in 10 years.

So where is the positive? In the improvement, in the positive trend. The award goes to “the one who has improved the most in 2021”. Vaccination with rates among the best in Europe is the clearest sign. For theEconomist Italy worked on its worst flaw: the “weak governance”, the weak government system “which made Italy poorer in 2019 than in 2000”. Told by a newspaper that had called Berlusconi unsuitable and drawn Renzi on a sinking boat, it is a great compliment that goes above all to Mario Draghi. Italy “has acquired a competent and internationally respected prime minister”, chosen by a large majority that has gone beyond political differences in the name of reforms.

The British weekly adds a warning: be careful not to go back, especially if Draghi will aim for the Quirinale and do not stay at Palazzo Chigi. Football has already had this warning with the failure to qualify directly for the World Cup after winning the European Championship. The rest of the sport is called to confirm itself next year and to continue the race for the Winter Olympics in Beijing 2022, because we can continue to be heroes.