Bus 90 stops at the corner of Via Toscana in Milan when it’s not yet eight in the morning, and a group of people rush downstairs. It’s Saturday, the busiest day for the bread distribution and others foods, and no one wants to miss their turn. But the queue is already long in front of the food counter Pane Quotidianoand it doesn’t stop growing up. It’s been like this for months. Motorists stop and look at it, because the snapshot is also surprising for its luxurious buildings with futuristic aesthetics that form the background of the scene.
Alessandro Continello, a lawyer and volunteer for ten years, sees it as a sign of the times. “More families are arriving, retirees, people who have lost their jobs, the middle class. People who live in houses,” he states. “The point is that Milan is a thermometer; if things are bad here, I don’t want to imagine what is coming in the rest of Italia“, Add.
Italia wobbles, and inflation explosion cast shadows on the social stability in a country that, once again, will change its government before the end of the legislature after the elections on September 25. Luigi Rossi, Vice President of Pane Quotidiano, illustrates this with what he sees on the ground. “These are not unprecedented queues, but they are growing. For three months, we have been serving around 500 more users per daywhich corresponds to a 10% increase “, he asserts, adding that there are up to 4,000 people who daily ask for food aid in his association. It is a situation that occurs when the rate of people at risk of poverty and social exclusionwhat in Italy rose from 20% to 25% (14 million affected) between 2020 and 2021, according to the Istat statistics center.
new poor
Davidea 34-year-old Italian, and Pedrooriginally from Peru, are a prototypical example of victims of the phenomenon: middle and working classes laminated by inequality that have become new poor. Davide, who goes to the food bank almost daily, started having difficulties in the spring when his partner, the mother of his daughter, lost her job as a waitress. Then, in August, the towing service Davide worked for also decided to let him go. “I have a problem with my back and my employer told me that he couldn’t afford to have an employee like that,” he explains, adding that it is the first time in his life that he has been in this situation. Pedro, a worker in a steel mill and the father of a little girl, also tells a similar story. “My wife does not work and I collect 1,200 euros, of which 800 euros go on rent. It never happened to me to have to ask for help, but with the increases, it is our only option,” details this immigrant settled in Italy for 23 years.
The economist Tommaso Monacelli es professor from Bocconi University of Milan. Explain that the Inflation is hitting Italy particularly hard, because “like Germany, the country is heavily dependent on imported oil and gas.” In addition, “in Italy, there are many small companies that have energy as their main expense. So the increases are quickly transferred to the prices (of products and services),” she argues. “These phenomena mainly hit the families with the lower rents of the suburbs of the big cities, which spend mainly on primary goods”, he specifies before emphasizing that if the Government of Mario Draghi had not given aid to companies, things would be much worse.
The figures support these theses. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has pointed out that the purchasing power of Italians will be particularly affected this year, with a descent of the real wages of 3%. In this context, the association of artisans Confartigianato He explained that the crisis threatens 800,000 companies and 3.5 million jobs. The reason is basically record inflation (8.4%, according to the latest Eurostat data), the highest since the 1980s.
“A Terrible Trap”
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In cities like Milanthe richest city in Italy and one of the most expensive in Europe, this loss of purchasing power represents a hard blow. “I lost my job in 2018 but now the bills are more expensive and it’s very difficult. I don’t even have money to go to the dentist and I probably won’t have it for electricity either, so I will be left without,” says Tiziano, 45. “Everything has increased; what used to cost 50 cents now costs 70 cents,” complains María Rosa Mammone, a 78-year-old retiree. “It’s a terrible trap. Prices have increased, but not pensions and wages,” says Rossi, the director of the food bank.
This is a phenomenon that also feeds the disillusion of those Italians who, like Davide, assure that they will not vote. “I don’t believe what they say,” says this young man. His case is not isolated. According to polls, the number of undecided and of those who do not know if they will vote exceeds 40%. A wound for democracy that is difficult to heal, and with which the next Italian government will have to deal.