(by John Blackeye) This morning Rome presented itself under its normal appearance with a Grande Raccordo Anulare not yet clogged but traveled at great speed by many more cars than those seen last week.
It seems that there are the preconditions for turning the country around and starting with phase 2 which will lead to the reopening of all commercial activities.
What must have escaped those who made optimistic forecasts and those who thought that it would be enough to give the green light to the traders to review all the illuminated and polished shop windows, is that without the support of the State many activities have not found the conditions and the strength to reopen.
The interview released on TV was emblematic Gianfranco Vissani who pointed out that even from 18 May he will not be able to reopen his restaurant because his eighteen cooks in the kitchen on the one hand cannot respect the safety distance but even more he cannot afford to pay their wages without collecting anything.
It seems that the state was not as close to it as it seemed instead it was, listening to the numerous press conferences issued by the Prime Minister, precisely because in the face of a commercial activity closed for almost three months, Vissani saw himself delivered home , with extreme punctuality, all taxes to be paid even with the restaurant closed.
All or a lot of solidarity advertised by the Government seems not to have translated, in substance, into something concrete.
So it happens that this morning in Rome, once I left the Grande Raccordo Anulare behind and found a paid parking that will serve to replenish the coffers of a Municipality that is always crying misery, having done almost a kilometer through the streets of the center, I was able to note that many of those bars that I would have expected open and with people queuing to have a rich Italian breakfast, were actually closed.
Something must have gone wrong. Obviously someone must have done wrong must have miscalculated the criteria for reviving the country. Once again, political reality has manifested itself as it is, that is, very distant from the reality experienced by citizens. Treating traders and artisans as statistical numbers to fit in well with the recovery factors of a state that is too far from the people must have led to wrong results.
Many bars have remained closed and the information shot point-blank by the national news shows showing a society at full speed with people who consume an aperitif in crowded cities.
The reality is another. The pandemic has really brought trade to its knees and the recovery should have rested on concrete aid already given and not on measures that follow one another almost without a full number of promises.
The reality is another. Many restaurants have also followed the same fate. They have remained closed both because the clientele is missing and because opening means starting to pay staff salaries and paying without cashing is one of the principles that leads you to bankruptcy.
What looked like a magic wand shot that from 18 May should have given us back a smiling and fervent nation in its economy, is turning into a beating that without looking at anyone, in the absence of concrete help, it almost sounds like a definitive sentence for many small entrepreneurs.
Of course, the virus did not bring the government to Italy. Behind all this drama there is China that however all the apparatuses persist in defending behind an anonymity that is worth the good economic relations with a giant of the economy that on the one hand it brings earnings and on the other it has no qualms about making your home your home. Ultimately, however, if the government has no blame related to the pandemic, some have perhaps reported it to manage it. Many conferences and many words should have turned into facts and this would have allowed many shutters to find themselves open and ready with the appointment of a phase2 that, at the moment, knows nothing.
