Slowly, Italy Is Waking From the Coronavirus Nightmare – The New York Times

Mistakes were made: the area around Bergamo was not declared a no-go area; family doctors were left on their own; patients were brought into hospitals where doctors and nurses were infected; tests for the general population were unavailable for too long.

But Italy coped.

Northern Italians showed resilience; Central and Southern Italians stayed at home, even though the epidemic was less visible there. Here and there, young crowds gathered dangerously, with the cover of night life, beach life, politics, football, even an air show in Turin. But on the whole, Italy stuck to the rules.

From early March to early May, the country found itself with its back to the wall; and thats a position where we Italians give our best. We can be disciplined, but somehow we dont like to admit it, as if it might damage our reputation.

Of course some things didnt work. We were the first in Europe to shut down the schools, and well be the last to reopen them (on Sept. 14, hopefully). For millions of Italians with young children and small apartments, working from home turned out to be a nightmare. And political squabbles, after a lull, restarted. The political parties sniff an early election, and are jockeying for position.

This slows down all decisions. Despite endless consultations, Mr. Conte has not made up his mind about the European Stability Mechanism, whose funds are earmarked for health expenditure. And, more important, he hasnt decided how to allocate Italys share of the E.U. Recovery Fund. This has complicated negotiations at the recent European Council in Brussels, and has given suspicious northern countries led by the Netherlands an excuse to stall. But in the end, predictably, an agreement was found.

Last Tuesday, after 90 hours of negotiation led by the European Commission, the 27 leaders of the European Union agreed to look forward. The 2021-2027 budget will be 1.8 trillion euros: of these, 750 billion will go to the post-Covid recovery fund, called Next Generation E.U. (390 billion will be in aid, 360 billion in loans). Italy one of two countries in Europe hardest hit by the pandemic, alongside Spain will be the main beneficiary. Each Italian citizen, on average, will receive 500 euros; each German and each Dutchman will shell out 840 and 930 euros respectively.

Europe may be hyper-regulated; but in an emergency, rules and regulations help to keep the situation under control. Slowly and painfully, the European Union is getting out of it. Some countries suffered more than others; but none was refused help, nor did any refuse it. As of July 20, 135,000 deaths had been reported among the 445,000,00 people living in the Union. The day before, for the first time since February, Lombardy where I live, and where it all started for Italy registered no coronavirus deaths. We are still worried, but we can finally breathe.

Beppe Severgnini, an editorial writer and editor at Corriere della Sera, writes regularly about Italian and European politics, society and culture.

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Slowly, Italy Is Waking From the Coronavirus Nightmare - The New York Times