Meridian Welfare

"In the South we do not live well compared to the North and will the Mezzogiorno become more evolved only when its social structures resemble those of the North?". This is the question around which revolves 'Welfare Meridiano', a book by Angelo Moretti that analyses the social situation between North and South also in the light of the crises triggered by the pandemic. In fact, looking at the data, the structures that did not withstand the impact (nursing homes, prisons, educational facilities) were those of the North, while in the South that form of welfare state based on 'proximity', the small municipalities that never lost sight of the quality of life of the elderly locked up in their homes and isolated, the welfare of street teachers who went to look for their missing pupils, the customised design of the Health Budget, the system of 'suspended spending' for the destitute, did.

The author then moves on to the great opportunity offered by the PNRR, always conceived as a virtuous model of the North to be exported to the South according to a separatist logic that divides hardship from comfort. What if instead the welfare of the future had the vision of 'meridian thinking'? The mayor of Lecce Carlo Salvemini dialogues with the author, moderated by journalist Valentina Murrieri.