One hundred and sixty years after the unification of Italy, we still question ourselves, especially in the South, if we can consider the unification of the beautiful country of Dante, Leonardo, Michelangelo, of the Renaissance and the southern lands, heirs of the classical world, Magna Greece.
The tumultuous narratives on the subject, but above all the statistical indicators, say that, after a century and a half, the diversity of North-South development has remained unchanged. The civil redemption of the South cannot be said achieved, while Article 3 of the Constitution that requires the removal of obstacles to the equality of citizens, without distinction of sex, language, religion, social and personal conditions, has remained inapplicable. When will definitive unification take place, if it does, with the elimination of North-South inequalities? It is a question that is difficult to answer, given that, so far, the unification, not only civil and economic, but also cultural, is increasingly distant from its completion. However, now, with the Draghi government, the time to resolve the ancient southern question seems to have finally arrived.
The opportunity of the PNRR (National Recovery and Resilience Plan) is unique and unrepeatable. The southern question, neglected, ignored, frowned upon, badly tolerated will now have its coupon: the last one. Now or never. Either it starts, at least in part, for a solution or it will go down in history definitively as an unresolvable question. If the reference made by President Draghi to the post-war spirit makes sense, it is right to expect the same commitment to the present for the South as the governments of republican Italy had after the war, at least until the end of the 1960s. At that time, the southern question was at the center of the central state's concerns to shorten the Great Gap between North and South. A historical reminder, but also an indication of an example of that extraordinary post-war era, is in the document that the SVIMEZ sent to the Prime Minister to remind him that now is the time to bridge the gulf between North and South.

Among the signatories of the document are Vincenzo Scotti, former minister and Christian Democrat leader, and Sergio Zoppi, historian, southerner, former president of FORMEZ and undersecretary with the Prodi government. Scotti and Zoppi, to the theme of North-South inequalities, have dedicated a book entitled "Governing Italy, from Cavour to De Gasperi, to Conte" (Eurilink, pages, 330, euro 22), with the aim of offering ideas for today. Starting from the process that led to the Unification of Italy, they revisited with the help of documents and historical sources, and focused on the reconstruction and rebirth of the country after the Second World War. The analysis and reflection on the policies pursued in the 1950s., which produced extraordinary results thanks also to the innovative idea of setting up the Cassa per il Mezzogiorno. In those years, governments and the national ruling class were called upon to choose how to use American aid and at the same time address the southern question, born with Unity.
Sergio Zoppi
There is a central figure in the story of Scotti and Zoppi: that of Giulio Pastore, trade unionist, founder of the CISL and minister, called by the government led by Amintore Fanfani in 1958 to chair the Committee of Ministers for the South.
It was with Pastore, who started the positive activity that brought the South to results never achieved before; a trend that lasted until, with the establishment of the Regions in 1970, with the breakdown of the unitary government strategy, the historic "question" disappeared from all agendas. The proposal of Scotti and Zoppi is to start again from there, from the post-war period, from the reconstruction and development project of the country, dealing with all that has not been achieved for everyone, after the first positive results. Restarting to work, recalling the spirit of post-war policies, which are still current, and inserting them into a unitary plan for Italy's growth, which makes the South the lever for Mediterranean Europe, is the suggestion. The book was conceived from the dialogue between the authors. Albeit in different roles of responsibility they were young protagonists of the southern path to the development of the country, in the season in which the ruling class of reconstruction was called upon to choose, and chose, without neglect, taking care, with virtuous examples, to bridge the historical delay of the Italian industry and at the same time to start a solution to the southern question.