Rome, October 23 (askanews) – Freelance professionals continue to be a strategic resource for the country: they deploy skills, generate innovation, offer services, and contribute to economic and social growth. Marco Natali, president of Confprofessioni, thus opened the national conference "Professionals. Sixty Years of Vision 1966-2026" in Rome, transforming the Confederation's anniversary into a discussion on the conditions necessary to strengthen self-employment and its contribution to development.
Inequality, demographic winter, and energy transition were the three main themes of the meeting, introduced by a video message from Senate President Ignazio La Russa. The first session also saw the inauguration of the exhibition "Women of the Republic," produced with the ANSA news agency and dedicated to women's contribution to the transformation of work and society.
For Natali, the gaps between genders, generations, and regions require a response that combines growth and social protection. "It's not just about redistributing wealth, but also about increasing the income pie again," he observed, noting that family incomes are still 90% of what they were in 2006. The proposal is to build a preventative welfare system capable of intercepting vulnerabilities before they compromise professional continuity.
This perspective has been incorporated into the Confprofessioni Manifesto, addressed to over one and a half million professionals. “It is a programmatic commitment to advance proposals and measure their progress,” the president explained, opening the discussion with political leaders. Elly Schlein, secretary of the Democratic Party, highlighted the need for "a welfare system that focuses on the individual and not the type of contract, guaranteeing solutions for illness, social security, and parenting." The goal is to prevent women from being forced to choose between career and family by making protections compatible with the characteristics of self-employment. "Fair compensation should not be a point of arrival, but of departure," added Schlein, proposing to broaden the scope of the law, ensure its application to the public administration, and remove the sanctions that affect the weaker contractual partner. He called for human oversight of artificial intelligence, while to keep bills low he recommended less bureaucracy on renewables and the separation of the price of clean energy from that of gas. Maurizio Lupi, leader of Noi Moderati, rejected a corporatist interpretation of the profession, defining professionals as a strategic component of the country, on a par with manufacturing and logistics, and an intellectual and operational infrastructure at the service of the economy. His proposal focuses on subsidiarity: assigning functions of general interest where professional skills can offer more effective responses and reducing the constraints that hinder the aggregation of firms. On welfare, Lupi urged "bridging the gap with dependent employment" by investing in work-life balance. Giuseppe Conte, president of the Five Star Movement, supported incentives for digitalization and the elimination of the double supplementary contribution in mergers. “We need simplification for small firms and young people, and a new welfare model that introduces more protection in the event of illness and maternity,” he said. Conte proposed a sovereign development fund for strategic investments and the restoration of Transition 4.0 tax credits. On the energy front, he mentioned energy communities, fixed-price contracts, storage, and smart grids. For access to professions, the call is to reactivate the social ladder, so that merit and competence determine opportunities. Generational change was also the focus of Minister of Labor Marina Elvira Calderone's video conference, during a panel discussion with Sara Cirone, Simone Gamberini, Valeria Marzullo, and Paola Aversa. “Today, those under 35 represent just 17% of the total,” he stressed, also emphasizing the importance of fair compensation for the dignity of work and the quality of performance. Marzullo linked professional equality to a different distribution of family care, still predominantly borne by women. The demographic discussion, featuring Istat President Francesco Maria Chelli, demographers Alessandra Minello and Alessandro Rosina, and researcher Ludovica Zichichi, explored the impact of aging on services and work organization. “We need more structured studies, increased leave for self-employed workers, and more healthcare professionals,” Zichichi said. Natali recalled the bilateral protections with Cadiprof and Ebipro, calling for time policies and home services extended to the self-employed. Nicola Armaroli, Paola Batistoni, Angela Bracco, Laura Ciccozzi, and Cornelius Matthes discussed energy and the costs of postponed decisions. For Ciccozzi, tax leverage in construction can support growth and sustainability, provided it is part of a long-term strategy. The economic structure of the studies also links these themes. Roger Abravanel, director emeritus of McKinsey, has traced dwarfism and low wages to market fragmentation, rather than the quality of professionals. Low-value-added demand, a shortage of large clients, bureaucracy, and slow justice systems are limiting its growth. Aggregations, collaboration, and more complex services thus become tools for enhancing skills and strengthening the competitiveness of the entire production system.
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