Before and after the presentation of the program proposals by the Five Star Movement, the debate about the long field, the broad center-left alliance in Italy, has focused mainly on the divergences regarding policy toward Kyiv. However, an equally important question has been left in the background: is there a development idea capable of uniting the center-left? The comparison with Spain provides a useful starting point for reflection, also in light of the recent clash between Giorgia Meloni and the Sánchez Government over the Ceuta crisis.
Italy and Spain were long considered two variants of the same model of “Mediterranean capitalism”: labor markets divided between protected workers and precarious ones, modest investments in research and training, and strong territorial inequalities. Both countries shared a “low-road” to competitiveness, based on flexibility and contained wages. The Great Recession laid bare the frailties of this model. Since then, the two countries have attempted to change course, investing more in innovation and digitization, also thanks to European resources available after the pandemic.
The results, however, have been different. Between 2013 and 2025, real GDP per capita grew by 21.5% in Spain, compared to 14.4% in Italy. Spain’s GDP, which in 1995 stood at roughly 69% of Italy’s, surpassed 85% in 2025. What explains this difference in dynamism?
“Both countries shared a ‘low-road’ to competitiveness, based on flexibility and contained wages”
Behind the shared objective of modernizing the production structure appears a different relationship between technological change and social transformation. In Italy, the economic adjustment has been selective and technology-driven: it has concentrated on the manufacturing industry and on larger, more structured firms. In Spain, by contrast, it seems to have had a more inclusive character. Alongside technological investments and an energy policy that has substantially reduced costs for businesses, there has been greater participation in the labor market, the strengthening of skills, and the integration of immigration. The measures adopted have been different, but so too has the philosophy behind them.
A few comparisons suffice to understand it. In 2025, both the female employment rate and the youth employment rate, as well as the share of university graduates, were clearly higher in Spain than in Italy. Moreover, between 2008 and 2025, the share of knowledge-intensive services in total employment grew in Spain—from 30.9% to 38%—more than in Italy—from 33.6% to 35.2%—thus reversing the initial gap. These data suggest that a greater presence of women and young people in the labor market, the integration of immigrants and investments in inclusion, skills and services can broaden the bases of development, as well as contribute to reducing inequalities.
“A greater presence of women and young people in the labor market, the integration of immigrants and investments in inclusion, skills and services can broaden the bases of development”
Many Italian firms have also innovated. But, without investments in the complementary factors to technology, productive modernization is not enough. There is a risk of falling into a “developmental technological illusion”: believing that incentives and machinery are enough, irrespective of investment in people. Social inclusion is not only a result of growth: it also helps sustain it.
It is not a matter of attributing all of Spain’s recovery to Sánchez: convergence began before his governments and traverses different political stages. But the direction and continuity of policies matter. The frequent changes in Italian coalitions have made it difficult to maintain a durable strategy; in Spain, greater political-programmatic continuity has favored the link between productive innovation and social transformation. And the governments led by the Socialists have endowed this perspective with incisive and recognizable measures.
Under Sánchez, between 2018 and 2026, the minimum wage rose by 66% in nominal terms. In addition, a labor reform aimed at limiting precariousness, the housing law, and the extraordinary regularization of immigrants are part of the package. In the realm of civil rights, it is worth noting the strengthening of abortion rights, the euthanasia law and the protection of trans and LGBTI people. They are different measures, but united by a common logic: the expansion of protections and of spaces for individual choice.
“They are different measures, but united by a common logic: the expansion of protections and of spaces for individual choice”
This means that civil, social and economic rights can coexist within an inclusive development strategy capable of combining productive modernization and social cohesion. This is the issue that the Spanish case poses to the long field: how to link innovation, work, the welfare state and freedom within a common program? It is not a matter of a checklist of measures to copy, but of an experience to confront.
The high road to development does not pass solely through technologies: it passes through people.
