Welcome to our world: Starting Again, Together. From the South, for Italy.

Nuovo Mezzogiorno Italiano was born from a simple but profound conviction: the South is not a problem to be managed, it is not a periphery to be supported, and it is not a land condemned forever to lose its young people. The South is one of Italy’s greatest untapped resources.

For too long, people in the South have been asked to wait, adapt, leave, and look elsewhere for opportunities that they should have been able to find in their own communities. Entire generations of young people, professionals, workers and entrepreneurs have taken their talent to the North or abroad, while towns and cities across the Mezzogiorno have lost population, skills, investment and future prospects.

We want to change this story.

We want a South where staying is a real choice and leaving is no longer a necessity. A South where a young person can study, work, start a business and build a family without feeling forced to move away. Where those who want to invest find open doors rather than bureaucracy, favouritism and obstacles. Where merit matters more than connections, healthcare works, infrastructure truly connects communities, and public administration serves citizens.

To achieve this, we must also free ourselves from a burden that the South has carried for far too long: the stigma that equates the Mezzogiorno with organised crime.

The Mafia, the ’Ndrangheta and the Camorra exist and must be fought without hesitation, ambiguity or compromise. But millions of honest citizens in Southern Italy cannot continue to be defined through the actions of criminals. An entrepreneur from Calabria, Sicily, Campania or Puglia should not be viewed with suspicion because of where they come from, and a young Southerner should not have to carry a burden of collective responsibility that does not belong to them.

Criminals must be fought. Communities must also be freed from stereotypes.

But freeing the South also means confronting decisively what has too often held it back from within: nepotism, clientelism, favouritism and corruption.

On this, we want to be absolutely clear.

Nepotism must end.

We cannot build a modern Mezzogiorno if a young person believes that, to find a job or gain an opportunity, they need to know someone; if a capable professional is passed over in favour of a relative or friend of someone in power; or if appointments, public positions and public resources are distributed through personal networks rather than according to competence and merit.

Nepotism is not a harmless habit to be tolerated. It is a corruption of power. It destroys meritocracy, weakens trust in institutions, drives capable people away, discourages investment and reinforces the belief that hard work is pointless because “this is simply how things work.”

We want to break this mentality.

No favours for relatives and friends. No shortcuts. No privileges for those close to power.

Opportunities must depend on ability, work, commitment and merit, not on someone’s surname, family background or personal connections.

The same determination must apply to corruption. Corruption takes resources away from citizens, makes public works more expensive, weakens honest businesses and destroys trust in the State. And corruption has no regional accent: it can be found in a municipality, a ministry, a publicly owned company or a major corporation.

That is why we want transparency in public decision-making, proper scrutiny of conflicts of interest, genuinely competitive tenders, personal accountability for those entrusted with public money, and the right of every citizen to know who made a decision, why it was made, who benefited from it and what resources were used.

And these rules must apply first and foremost to us.

We cannot demand from the State standards that we are unwilling to apply within our own party. Political credibility begins at home.

We are not asking for privileges for the South. We are asking for the conditions to compete on equal terms.

We do not want to set the South against the North. We want to build a stronger Italy by unlocking the enormous economic, human and cultural potential of the Mezzogiorno. Because when such a large part of the country loses young people, skills and productive capacity, the whole of Italy loses. And when the South grows, creates jobs, produces, innovates and exports, the whole country grows with it.

We want to speak to those who stayed and who continue, every day, to believe in their communities. To those who left and would like to maintain or rebuild their connection with the South. To those who live in the North or abroad but have never stopped feeling connected to the Mezzogiorno. To entrepreneurs who want to invest, professionals who want to contribute, and young people who want the freedom to choose where to build their future.

Nuovo Mezzogiorno Italiano wants to transform this vast community into a force for change.

We want politics to regain a concrete meaning in people’s lives: transparent institutions, efficient administrations, clear accountability, and a political class judged by its conduct and by the results it delivers.

Our goal is to create the conditions in which the Mezzogiorno can generate prosperity and build its future: decent work, competitive businesses, modern infrastructure, high-quality universities and research, affordable energy, security, efficient public services and healthcare that meets people’s needs.

We do not want politics based on promises. We want clear objectives and results that citizens can see, assess and judge.

The Mezzogiorno does not need pity. It needs respect.

It does not need to be maintained. It needs the conditions to produce, compete and grow.

It should not be judged through its criminals. It should be recognised through the millions of honest citizens who work, study, build businesses and create a future every day.

And it does not need politics based on favours and connections. It needs a revolution of merit.

This is the challenge of Nuovo Mezzogiorno Italiano: to free the South from crime and from the stigma of crime; from nepotism, corruption, clientelism and resignation; and to create the conditions in which its best energies can finally be transformed into jobs, development and a future.

Because we no longer want to ask our young people:

“Where will you go?”

We want finally to be able to ask them:

“What do you want to build here?”

Let us start again from the South.

To get Italy moving again.