Mattarella: 'Don't look at young people with indifference or petty underestimation'

"Many young people would willingly return if they were offered a path of work and life that would allow them to be fulfilled. Society cannot address young people with an attitude of indifference or, worse, petty underestimation. It is a great social issue. A priority that must see sensitive institutions and all the forces of society". The President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, said this, speaking at the ceremony for the awarding of the insignia of Knight of the Order "Al Merito del Lavoro" to the Knights of Labor appointed on 2 June 2026.

"Businesses generate value but they don't do everything on their own. They need fertile ground in which to allow projects to mature. And central is human capital, made up of people placed in the conditions to express themselves in the best possible way and to be free from need. A broad vision is needed which, alongside the necessary economic choices, proposes adequate strategies in dealing with the malaise, the sense of insecurity for the future that young people often feel, the fear of subjugation or marginalization. Even more so in these tumultuous and uncertain times," the head of state said.

"The perspectives of young people are, as is evident, crucial for determining the evolution of our society, our economy, our life models - he added - The concerns of the present must be reflected in the commitment to planning the future. In this process, the negative balance of youth migration represents a serious burden for our country".

"Connecting the quality of business and work to that of study represents an appropriate and engaging meeting between generations, in a period in which demographic imbalance and technological accelerations make this alliance, or at least the natural transmission between young people and adults which is vital for building the future, more problematic", he then observed, underlining that "widespread business is the engine of the development of our communities, it is a substantial contrast to the depopulation and rarefaction of services which, not today, characterizes the internal areas of the country, in a succession of effects destructive forces that need to be countered with effective policies".

"The development of the future requires economic, environmental and social sustainability. Social protection and welfare are an essential part of development: inclusion is a decisive ally of growth, not an unproductive cost", the President of the Republic then highlighted.

"In phases of uncertainty - he warned - the courage to innovate is needed. It is not the time for withdrawal, for the home garden, for nostalgia for 'the good old days' that cannot return, assuming that they actually existed. The time for innovation certainly requires courage and a vision of the future. Many companies demonstrate that they are not afraid and, in this, they do a service to the country which must expertly know how to accompany them in this effort".

Mattarella then remarked that "senseless wars of aggression, delegitimization of international law, protectionist barriers, neo-imperialist policies, the insecurity of maritime routes, the resulting increases in energy prices that fuel inflation, neo-monopolistic claims: all these senseless phenomena are producing seriously negative effects on value chains, on the freedom of trade and are reflected in the very freedoms of our model of life, with so-called tycoons, intolerant of the rules of the community, be they state or supranational, with absurd, unacceptable demands in crucial sectors of international life".