“Better to have someone working in a company than standing in line for welfare”: these were the strong words of Cavaliere Domenico De Rosa, CEO of the SMET Group, who spoke on Friday, September 12, at 6:30 p.m., during the session “The South Restarts, Italy Grows” at the Spazio Sud event, held at the Savoy Hotel in Capaccio Paestum. According to Cav, “the future of Southern Italy must not be waited for, but built day by day with vision, responsibility, and courage.”

The event was attended by leading institutional and political figures, including Minister of Labor and Social Policies Elvira Calderone, Undersecretary to the Prime Minister with responsibility for the South Luigi Sbarra, Istat President Francesco Maria Chelli, as well as leaders of national associations and organizations such as ALIS Vice President and General Director Marcello Di Caterina and ZES Mission Structure Coordinator Giosy Romano. The event, moderated by the editor-in-chief of the Gazzetta del Mezzogiorno, Mimmo Mazza, featured a debate rich in insights and reflections on the role of Southern Italy in the country’s economic and social development.

In his speech, Cavaliere De Rosa delivered a strong and clear message: the South can no longer be viewed as a fragile region to be protected through welfare measures or as a territory to be passively propped up. On the contrary, it must take on the role of a driving force for the national economy, harnessing its own energy, the talent of the younger generations, and the solid roots that run deep into a history spanning millennia. Only in this way can it truly realize its full potential and become a benchmark for the entire country.

According to De Rosa, transforming these resources into opportunities requires a clear and immediate shift in approach. Emergency measures or temporary solutions are not enough. A clear strategy is needed, consisting of long-term investments and structural measures, capable of creating the conditions for businesses to grow and retain the workforce locally. It is necessary to aim for a significant reduction in labor costs, so as to make Southern Italy competitive at the European level, and to introduce stable tax relief that is not subject to constant regulatory changes. Only in this way will entrepreneurs have the courage to invest and create new jobs.

“I had the honor of speaking at Spazio Sud in Capaccio Paestum,” said Cavaliere De Rosa. “It was an important opportunity to reflect on how, in recent years, governments have introduced various social security contribution relief measures to promote employment in Southern Italy. From the Southern Employment/Southern Development Incentive (2018–2020) to the structural Southern Social Security Contribution Relief introduced in 2020, up to the recent 2025 Southern SME Social Security Contribution Relief, this series of measures has always suffered from two limitations: excessive fragmentation and temporary nature, which have never provided certainty to entrepreneurs, and the constraints imposed by the European Union on state aid, which have forced the measures to remain weak and conditional.” The message is clear: “In the South, it is always better to have a person employed by a company—even for just a few hours and in training—than a person dependent on subsidies. Only in this way can the South stop being perceived as a fragile territory in need of protection and truly become the new California of the Mediterranean.”

Il Cavaliere also emphasized that companies have a duty to take responsibility not only for economic growth, but also for the training and dignity of their workers. People should not be viewed as a social cost to be borne through subsidies, but as a valuable resource to be nurtured and integrated into the production cycle. The South, he firmly reiterated, does not need citizens on welfare, but men and women who are educated, well-paid, and proud to participate in the development of their homeland.

The speech concluded with a clear and ambitious vision: the South must become the California of the Mediterranean, a fertile, competitive, and attractive region capable of generating wealth, innovation, and progress. A South that is a protagonist, not a spectator, capable of guiding Italy toward new paths of growth. “Change is not something to be waited for,” De Rosa stated, “but something to be driven.”