ROME “A third of European citizens threatened by social downgrading. There are 75 regions and provinces of the European Union countries in which there has been a negative change in per capita net disposable income over the last fifteen years. A trend that involved 151 million citizens (equal to 34% of the European population and corresponding to 121 million voters), who suffered a decline in their family living standards. And who will (eventually) go to the polls with a burden on their shoulders: the perception of a betrayal of the promise of improving their conditions, having been subjected to processes of divergence rather than convergence, having experienced a retreat rather than progress”. This is what emerges from the report ‘The State of the Union. Social geography of Europe at the Censis vote. The downgraded territories are mainly located in Greece, Italy and Spain, but also in France, Austria, Hungary, portions of Portugal, Belgium and Germany. The most worrying data are recorded in Attica in Greece (with a reduction in per capita income compared to 2007 of 35.6%), but also in some Italian regions: Lazio (-16.0%), Umbria (-14, 7%), Autonomous Province of Trento (-14.6%), Tuscany (-14.6%). With the great crisis of 2008, the “long cycle of European historical and social downgrading began, and there are many citizens who have been lost in the folds of the deindustrialization of many territories. Of all the Europeans involved, 4 out of 10 are Italians (39.1%)”, explains Censis. “Strong social disparities persist, and have often become accentuated, in the different territorial contexts within individual states, which can undermine the cohesion of national communities,” we read in the report. As regards Italy, “the gap is very wide. It fluctuates from the minimum value of the GDP per capita of the Calabria (-40.9% compared to the national average) to the maximum value of Bolzano (+65.4% compared to the national average). And there are 6 Italian regions in which a GDP per capita (at purchasing power parity) is still lower than the threshold of 75% of the European average: Calabria, Sicily, Campania, Puglia, Sardinia and Molise”. (Sib/Adnkronos)
