Italy Phase 2 — Reopening of False Hopes
With the much-anticipated reopening, some are less happy than others.
On May 4th the much-anticipated “Phase 2” began in Italy. Images and footage surfaced in foreign media of Italians dancing, clapping, flooding streets — all pointing to a huge country-wide celebration.
While I admit that generally everyone is happy for one of the strictest and longest European lockdowns to have begun easing, the general atmosphere is, sadly, a lot less cheerful.
Let us first get a few facts straight:
4 million people have gone back to work on 4th of May, which are workers mainly in factories geared towards exports and construction sites, and bars and restaurants performing take-away services. We are finally allowed to go for a run or a bike ride but casual walks are still not allowed. We can now see our families and partners, but not friends or other acquaintances. As of now most stores will only reopen on the 18th of May and restaurants, bars, hairdressers, beauty salons and many other activities can only resume regular activity from June 1st — something that might change in the coming days after continuous demonstrations from Italian citizens demanding a quicker reopening.
So all of this sounds like a great first step, right? What is the issue then?
Unfortunately, in the past week it has become painfully apparent that things are not and cannot go back to normal for a long time. As we emerge out of the lockdown, the economic reality of this situation is becoming distressingly clear.
Millions of people have lost their jobs or are put on hold.
Businesses have already suffered and will continue to suffer the low demand and many will choose not to reopen at all, as they would just go bankrupt.
Paolo Bianchini, a restaurant owner in Viterbo, Lazio, explains the situation he finds himself in along with many other restaurant owners and hospitality workers:
“We only want to open when we know we’ll be able to work efficiently,” he said. “For example, my restaurant has 100 covers — with social distancing this will be reduced to 30. If I do so little business, my restaurant will close, as I won’t be able to cover my costs. Paradoxically, we will fail if we open. We need liquidity — how is it that serious countries like England are managing to help business owners, but Italy isn’t lending a hand?”
Others, such as Pietro Demita, a stylist in Lecce, whose company is a leading wedding dress designer, set fire to his entire collection in protest against the lockdown, which has brought the wedding industry to near-collapse.
The Tourism sector, which accounts for 14% of Italian GDP, is entirely put on hold. Confturismo, the country’s tourism association, stated that Italy already lost 30 million tourists between March and May, and this trend will continue over the summer.
Furthermore, many other sectors, just like my own, the film industry — or any other sector that requires the gathering of groups of people, also face a completely uncertain future.
Frankly, I think we all knew that this was coming and that this reopening wouldn’t let us immediately return to our normal lives,
but somehow, while we were just waiting for this day to come, our hopes were high, that this return would be quick and painless. We couldn’t wait for phase 2 to come, only to realize how false our hopes were all along.
So we are all trying to cope, to see the positives, but I think this is the time to awkwnoledge that we are all in the same storm but not in the same boat. The consequences of the pandemic are unequal and painful.
So as an advice from someone who lived it: as all of you emerge out of your lockdowns, please, keep your hopes moderate, be considerate of those who are potentially not as lucky as you, try to help and even donate, and know that we will get through this, but the hard times are not yet behind us.
