The Minister of the Bonetti Family: "The single check has started: this is how it works"

He has been minister for the family for three years, first in the Conte II government and currently in the Draghi government.

Elena Bonetti, mother of Tommaso and Chiara, lives in Mantua and is Associate Professor of Mathematical Analysis at the University of Milan.

After graduating in mathematics in 1997 at the University of Pavia, she obtained a master's degree at the University of Milan in 2002 and began her academic career as a researcher at the Pavia university up to the Milanese professorship in 2016.

At home, politics has always been present: the mother, a retired middle school teacher, was a minority municipal councilor and municipal secretary of the Democratic Party in her hometown, Asola, in the Province of Mantua. But it is above all her social commitment, particularly in Scouting, that occupies an important place in her life: for many years she has been active in Agesci, holding positions at national level. In 2017 she was called by Matteo Renzi to be part of the national secretariat of the PD as national youth and training manager while in 2019 she entered the national direction by creating the political training school for young people "Meritare Italia".

She is the creator of an organic and innovative plan for families, better known as the Family Act, which began to take shape with the advent of the Draghi government after a long gestation from its establishment as ministry in the second Conte government. In September 2019 a crucial step: leaving the PD and joining Italia Viva, the creature of Matteo Renzi that determines the fall of Giuseppe Conte and the rise of Mario Draghi to Palazzo Chigi.

We asked her some questions on the eve of the event, in which she will participate remotely at the invitation of Senator Giuseppe Luigi Cucca, regional leader of Italia Viva, which will be held on Friday 11 March in Nuoro at the Eliseo Theater (7.30 pm) with many important women from the island society.

Minister Bonetti or Minister Bonetti?

"Always Minister. I believe in the enhancement of differences, including gender, as the basis of pluralism and the common good.

This means recognizing the value and dignity of each and every one and placing the differences we bring at the service of the community. It is also true in language. If we want to testify that women can access any role, living it in the experience of the feminine, I think that even the language must be declined in the feminine ".

New single allowance for children. Can you tell us how it works?

“For the first time in our country, support for families with children takes the form of a universal and stable tool, from the seventh month of pregnancy up to the age of 21 for each child. Families have until June 30 to apply through the INPS website or at the patronates and receive retroactivity from March. Those who ask for the check after June 30 will receive it from the month in which they applied. The payment is monthly, in a time window that goes from the 15th to the 21st of each month. It is the first step already taken and the first pillar of an overall reform, that of the Family Act, which we wanted to put the girls and boys and families of our country back at the center ".

At what point is the overall entry into force of the entire Family Act?

“The Family Act was passed with a substantially unanimous vote in the House and is now being examined by the Senate.

I hope that its approval will be reached as soon as possible in order to give concrete answers to families on the various axes of the reform: support for educational services, parental leave, women's work and the autonomy of young people. These are clear, incisive and coherent actions with the objectives of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan ".

Is the family in crisis? Blame the weak economy, education, social media?

"The time we lived, of profound personal and collective discernment due to the pandemic, highlighted the burdens that families face every day in our country: they found themselves the place where our social life was concentrated , from school to smart-working. However, that humanity recomposed into family communities was the place where Italy found resistance and resilience: in the face of the pandemic, a sense of community and co-responsibility has been triggered, of which families have been the network.

Our task today is to put them back more and more at the center and to accompany their dreams, first of all that of having children and that all girls and boys have equal opportunities.

All our efforts must be and are concentrated on this ”.

Equal opportunities: how should women's jobs change?

“Our country needs to increase the quality and quantity of female work in a uniform way throughout the country, with a particular boost in the regions of Southern Italy.

The Draghi government immediately identified the increase in female employment as one of the objectives to be achieved, and the measures implemented - reduction of the cost of labor for women, conditionality for contracts in the NRP on women and young people, rewards and incentives for companies with certification for gender equality, nursery schools and welfare services and the 'Strategy', the first in the history of our country - tell us that this is the right path and we must move forward ”.

A woman at the Quirinale, why didn't they succeed?

“I have said it on several occasions, women have been fielded only as a symbol, paths have not been built to aggregate real consensus around them and their personalities, very valid and qualified, have not really been evaluated.

The path traced by President Mattarella and President Draghi is clear: gender equality and the empowerment of women are strategic axes for the restart and development of the whole country ".

What do you miss most about teaching?

“Each teaching thrives on research and relationships with students. This is the soul of university teaching and they are two aspects that I miss in the same way ”.

What would you like for Italian families?

“The possibility of regaining trust. Trust in a community and in a country that sees them as the center of collective life and also of a state that invests in them knowing that it is investing in the new generations ".

LP