The pandemic struck an Italy weakened by a quarter of a century of economic and social decline and trapped in a vicious cycle of "low growth-high debt" that is impossible to break when interest rates, albeit historically low thanks to the European Union, are higher than the GDP growth rates.

The breakthrough generated in the EU in recent months thanks to the initiatives of German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron offers Italy an opportunity that is as unexpected as it is unmissable not only to recover from the economic shock produced by Covid-19, but also to find a path of financially, socially and ecologically sustainable growth. Rather than dwelling on how to use the resources unexpectedly made available by the European Union, in these pages we draw attention to three hurdles that have hindered Italy’s economic growth in recent decades. Without removing these obstacles, but instead trying to get around them with new subsidies, Italy risks wasting what seems to us its last chance to avoid a new public debt crisis.

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