Italy’s minister resigns due to low education fund

ROME: Italy’s Education Minister Lorenzo Fioramonti said Thursday he has resigned in a letter sent to the Italian premier, after the government failed to increase funding for schools and universities in next year’s budget, BOL News learnt.

In a Facebook post, Fioramonti confirmed he sent his resignation letter Monday evening after the final parliament approval of the 2020 budget law.

Fioramonti had pledged to quit unless education spending was increased by at least 3 billion euros. That target wasn’t met by the new budget as the government struggles to find the resources needed to avoid a massive VAT hike.

“I had accepted my job with the only aim to revert in a radical way the trend that for decades has put school, university and research in a painful situation,” Fioramonti wrote in his post.

He said the government didn’t have enough courage to invest adequate resources in a sector that represents “the real future for all of us.”
A 2018 report on education and training prepared by the European Commission shows that Italy spends less than other EU countries and achieves worse results. For this reason, Italy runs the risk of losing a million students in the next 10 years, the report said.

On Twitter he also demanded to increase the GDP.

Dobbiamo passare da un modello di crescita ancorato al PIL ad uno che sostenga ecosistemi e ottimizzi il benessere unano in tutte le sue forme. 11,000 scienziati d'accordo con le tesi espresse anche nel mio ultimo libro. Leggi questo paper in BioScience https://t.co/4jyYo9RHVJ pic.twitter.com/YS3i7wxtLi

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— Lorenzo Fioramonti (@lofioramonti) December 24, 2019