Trento Festival kicks off: spotlight on geopolitics

It is a time of choices, a time for the re-discussion of a world order that is struggling to find a stable centre of gravity in the complex horizon of actions that the various protagonists are putting in the field. Economic and financial changes brought about by much-discussed measures (such as the return of tariffs), scenarios of continuing war and the role of a European Union that is struggling (but must) carve out a leading role in the global context. These are some of the main themes around which the 20th edition of the Trento Festival of Economics, scheduled from 22 to 25 May, will revolve.

Exceptional protagonists during the Trentino days will be Italian and international intellectuals and economists, politicians, ministers, entrepreneurs and managers, and journalists who will try to unravel the tangled skein of international political and economic relations. Reasoning about the complex current situation, proposing solutions and identifying trends will be the task of the speakers who will take turns in the halls over the course of the days. It will therefore be a special edition, this fourth one conceived by the 24 ORE Group together with Trentino Marketing in the role of organisers on behalf of the Autonomous Province of Trento and with the contribution of the Municipality of Trento and the University of Trento. A winning formula that has led the "squirrel people" to grow in an extraordinary way, reaching over 100 thousand presences in three years.

The 2025 programme - which celebrates 20 years of the Festival and 160 years of Il Sole 24 Ore - features, among others, six Nobel Prize winners, including two 'graduates' for Economics from the last edition: the British economist James A. Robinson and the economics professor at the MIT in Boston Daron Acemoglu, who will analyse 'The infinite struggle between power and progress in the age of artificial intelligence'. Also returning to the Trento Festival are Nobel Prize winners in Economics James Heckman, Michael Spence and Edmund Phelps. The latter will analyse his alliances and differences with Jean Paul Fitoussi, the French economist who died in 2022 and to whom the Festival dedicates a seminar every year to continue spreading his thought. The Squirrel People will also meet Tawakkol Karman, Nobel Peace Laureate, in dialogue with Father Enzo Fortunato.

In this first in-depth look at the Festival's themes, the spotlight is on geopolitics, also in the light of the title chosen this year: 'Risks and Fatal Choices. Europe at the crossroads'. A theme of pressing topicality, chosen by the event's Advisory board chaired by the editor-in-chief of Sole 24 Ore Fabio Tamburini and comprising Elena Beccalli, Marco Fortis, Paolo Magri, Emma Marcegaglia, Giulio Sapelli and Giulio Tremonti. The macro-theme will be explored in more detail in a subsequent Festival launch page, with events organised in collaboration with Ispi.

THURSDAY 22 MAY