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COVID-19 Diaries: Young Italians Are Over Social Distancing

Jamie Dettmer

   ROME - The 20-something Italian is having none of it. For the woman and
   her friends relishing the relief of a cool August breeze at a bar in a
   medieval piazza, the coronavirus pandemic is much ado about nothing.

   A means solely to control them and empower bureaucrats. While the
   stones beneath her feet cooled in the evening air, the young woman
   became angry as she declaimed against the coronavirus restrictions.

   "It is all about politics," she said emphatically when I asked why she
   and her friends were congregating in such large numbers, embracing and
   canoodling in defiance of social distancing advice.

   "It is just politics," she repeated.

   Crises often expose longstanding divisions. One of the sharpest in
   Italian society in recent years has been between the old and the young,
   and the pandemic appears to be widening the split.

   Young Italians have long chafed at what they see as the hold that older
   generations have on the country. A rigid labor market that favors those
   already employed has led over the past decade to a persistent lack of
   job prospects for younger people.

   Nearly 30% of Italians under the age of 25 are unemployed, according to
   Eurostat, the European Statistical Office. And many of those in work
   face a future of short-term contracts with no job security and few, if
   any benefits or opportunities for promotion.

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