"Never so connected and never so alone: people no longer know how to be together," comments Marco Bentivogli, a former prominent CISL union representative and now coordinator of Base Italia, with 18 other fellow travelers, as the author of "Plan B. The Italy of the Future. Notes for the Change We Need," a book published by Donzelli and in bookstores this weekend. "Decline," Bentivogli explains in the book and in this interview with FIRSTonline, "is not inevitable," but if we truly want to rebuild the country, we need to put "human connections" at the center: from community health to schools, from work to cities." Plan B is not just another slogan, but an original vision for society that wisely starts from the bottom, in the knowledge that at the grassroots, "the country is already building better solutions than those adopted by politicians." The hope is that the book will be successful and spark discussion, and that politicians, as well as intermediary bodies, will be able to listen and understand. But let's hear what Bentivogli thinks exactly.
Bentivogli, how did the idea of “come about?Plan B. The Italy of the Future. Notes for the Change We Need., a collection of essays by various authors collected in a volume published by Donzelli and in bookstores from June 26th?
"Plan B was born in 2022, following the experience of the 2018 Civic Forum, from the meeting of people with diverse backgrounds held together by a bond of "political friendship" and the same concern: an increasingly weak policy while the country, in its territories, is already building better responses than those public debate can muster. After the first book in 2024, A score to regenerate Italy, and a community that has been working on work, health and sustainability since 2025, this second volume brings together nineteen authors to bridge that gap between the solutions that already exist and a policy that is unable to intercept them.
In concrete terms, what would be the Plan B and what change is needed?
“Il Plan B It is an idea of a society in which work, welfare, schools, cities, and all transitions are not based solely on individual efficiency, but on the quality of the bonds they generate. Let's start with a clear diagnosis, "never so connected and never so alone": the breakdown of close relationships is a "systemic pathology," produced by decades of choices that have prioritized performance over care and competition over cooperation. And people no longer know how to be together. The change we need is to put human bonds back at the center of our infrastructure, from community health to schools, from work to cities.
Il Plan B Can it be considered a useful platform for political forces that want to use it in view of the next political elections?
“The book was not born as an electoral platform and Plan B It's not a party or a movement: it's a 's-party,' a proposal that speaks to the country rather than begging from the parties. That said, the content is available to anyone, without exception, who wants to seriously embrace it. The metaphor remains a musical one: it's a score, and others can choose to play it."
With what risks?
The real risk is not that no one will take it, but that it will be reduced to a campaign slogan. Politics, by quoting the key words of those who think, fuels its own narcissism, but treats ideas and proposals as if they were consumed by everyday noise. Politics and intermediate bodies have lost all idea of representation and absorb even important ideas as quotations that disengage. Everything is representation, and even an idea becomes little more, and sometimes even less, than a photo opportunity. Even daily petitions, appeals, and manifestos on every topic no longer shake up public discourse; everything is consumed by forwarding messages that fewer and fewer people read."
Realistically, in her opinion, there are the political and social conditions to prevent the Plan B remains only a noble testimony and to initiate change?
The conditions are fragile but real, and I'm not starting from an optimistic will: I'm starting from the fact that the country is already developing better responses than those politicians are accepting. It's no longer the old "disconnection from the grassroots"; the grassroots no longer exist, and we pretend not to notice the definitive disconnection from politics. Plan B It's a path to follow, not a manifesto locked in a book. Decline isn't inevitable, but neither is redemption automatic: time is running out, and announcing change is no longer enough; it must be practiced within institutions, in communities, and in everyday decisions. In a country where participation as a whole is in profound crisis, self-celebrations facilitate decline. The third sector is also struggling: the dangers of bureaucratization and the dehumanization of social services loom ever larger. Plan B it will work if it will be challengingFilling conferences with "social media" is a familiar story. At our first presentation in 2023, the media greeted us with the slogan, 'Here's the Catholic Party, centrist, of moderates.' Nothing could be more wrong. Of course, it's up to us not to get sucked into the debate between the political establishment, but those who report must also strive to see beyond that."
Il Plan B It includes many proposals, but which are the truly priority and decisive ones?
There is only one decisive proposal, from which all others stem: treating human connections as infrastructure, not as a spiritual supplement. Concretely, this means four priorities: people, environment, technology, and work, always interpreted from the perspective of these connections and their ability to rebuild the country. Rebuilding proximity in healthcare and education, thinking of work as a relationship and not as pure performance, managing an ecological transition that doesn't depend on the purchasing power of families, and institutions, regions, and citizens that practice rather than simply announce. We all complain about a political system that has taken the ball away from the game of democracy. We complain about a class that thrives on re-election, yet we are still weak in how we rebuild processes of collective engagement. Plan B it is to valorize the other Italy, the one that, by putting in its own effort, does not stop and does not give up”.
