They are known as the eternal adolescents, young men and women who live in the family home while having their underwear washed and pasta cooked by their devoted and — until now — unquestioning mammas and papas. But now Italy is attempting to force its vast generation of bamboccioni (mother’s boys and girls) to find their own way in the world.
A government minister who admits that his mother made his bed for him until he was 30 years old, is demanding a law obliging young Italians to leave the parental nest at 18 to stop them from becoming hopelessly dependent on their parents.
Renato Brunetta, the Minister for Public Administration, made the proposal after a court judgment in Bergamo forced Giancarlo Casagranda, a divorced father, to pay €350 (£310) a month for the continued upkeep of his daughter Martina, 32, who has been a student of philosophy since 2002.
Compared with their other European compatriots, Italians are massively reliant on their mothers and fathers, with 59 per cent of men and women between the ages of 18 and 34 still living at home, according to La Stampa. This is in contrast to 34-5 per cent in Britain, 10 per cent in Spain, 16.5 per cent in Germany, 23 per cent in France, and an EU average of 29 per cent. The newspaper said that a quarter of young Italian adults still lived with their parents because they were students, while half said they did so “for economic reasons”.
Mr Brunetta, however, suspects that many simply like having their laundry done and meals prepared — not to mention beds made — by mamma.
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In the Bergamo case, 60-year-old Mr Casagranda, who left his wife and daughter in 1997 and formed another relationship, continued to pay for Martina’s upkeep until two years ago, when he stopped payments on the grounds that she was employed as a part-time dancing instructor and at 32 could look after herself.
His ex-wife, however — also called Marina — took him to court after losing her job as a hairdresser. Judges in Bergamo found against Mr Casagranda, ordering him not only to resume monthly payments, but also to pay arrears amounting to €12,000. They cited a Supreme Court ruling that parents, even if separated or divorced, were obliged to pay for their children’s upkeep “until they are self-sufficient”.
“In some cases that means forever,” said Chiara Saraceno, an Italian sociologist. “The extended Italian family is a social benefit, but it can stop people assuming responsibility for themselves.” Mrs Casagranda insisted that her daughter could not survive on the €600 she earned a month, and was still a student because “it is very hard for young people to find work nowadays”.
However, Mr Brunetta, who has conducted a campaign against “slackers” in the civil service since Silvio Berlusconi’s Government came to power nearly two years ago, said that bamboccioni were “the victims of a system of social organisation in which parents are always in the wrong”.
He admitted he was ashamed that he lived at home until he was 30, to the point where “I did not know how to make my own bed. My mother took care of things like that”. The time had come, he said, for legislation to force Italians to leave home when they turned 18.
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Roberto Calderoli, the Minister for Simplification of Laws, said the Bergamo ruling was “against common sense”, but so was Mr Brunetta’s proposal. Giorgia Meloni, the Minister for Youth, 33, said that she lived with her parents until recently, but had always made her own bed.
“I would have preferred to make my own bed in my own house, but like many other graduates I could not afford it,” she said.
According to Istat, the Italian statistical office, nearly half of Italians who leave home — eventually — do so to get married, and only 28 per cent do so “to be independent”.