The verdict of the San Mauro Pascoli trial: ‘Italian Republic guilty of not having kept its promises’

The historian Davide Conti launched the first broadsides on the Republic: “The Republic was born from the collapse of the monarchy and the transition from a hot war (against the invader, civil war and class conflict, according to what Claudio Pavone said) to a cold one in the international context. The Constitution is the child of this alone which becomes an unfinished act”. Conti lists the delays in its application: birth of the Constitutional Court in 1956; CSM in 1959; school reform in 1968; reform of labor law and birth of the Regions in 1970; 1974 referendum instituted; 1978 the national health service; 1981 organic reform of family law; 2014 introduction of the crime of torture. “In Italy there is no Nuremberg and so our democracy was born without a trial of fascism. And this fuels a culture of massacre which was already established at dawn in the Portella della Ginestra massacre”. The ending: “I ask us not to condemn the Republic but to deal with a history that we have hardly been able to look in the eye”.

In defense of the Republic the historian Roberto Balzani. “The Republic becomes plausible when it becomes an instrument for overthrowing a tyranny. The same had happened in the United States against the English and in France with the revolutionaries. In Italy it affirms itself when the Monarchy collapses together with the fascist regime. Just a few years earlier the idea of a Republic in our country was among a melancholic few, so much so that in the nineteenth century the only one present was that of San Marino in a general panorama of only monarchies. This is essential to underline, to understand the framework in which our Republic was born. Thinking that the constituents would have immediately applied the dictates of the charter after a bloody civil war, in a country that was coming from 20 years of dictatorship and which for the most part was a-democratic and a-republican, was very complicated. The strength of the Republic lies in its bet and its vision on the future of the country. This is seen above all in the period 1948-1978 when Italy experienced an epochal change that it had never known with a consensus that was not so obvious in the premises of its. birth.”

For the political scientist Marco Valbruzzi, the second accuser, there are two charges against the Republic: “high treason and attack on the Constitution. The distance between the promises of 80 years ago and the daily achievements is before our eyes”. Valbruzzi calls into question five testimonies from everyday events to confirm the distance between the Constitution and its application: the death at work in January 2022 of the intern Lorenzo Parelli (“three people die at work a day, far from a Republic founded on work”); the story of Giulia, degree in Economics, Erasmus, a perfect CV forced to emigrate abroad to find work; the story of Marina and Emanuele from Taranto, three children, he falls ill and despite the illness his fear is the loss of work for the family (“in Taranto from 2004 to 2010 almost 12 thousand people lost their lives largely due to causes due to the steelworks”); the story of the Indian laborer Satnam Singh who died at work in the Pontine countryside and was abandoned by his employer; Bruno di Gatteo who works but doesn’t make it to the end of the month due to low pay. “In the face of all this, I ask for a sentence that aims to re-educate the Republic to bring it on the right tracks”.

Finally, the defense of the historian Maurizio Ridolfi. “Valbruzzi cites cases of failed promises but I could cite just as many facts in reverse. Even on a personal level: I come from a family of farmers and I had the opportunity to study and have an academic career thanks also to a context that allowed me to do so.” The historian goes on to analyze: “We are the Republic. It is stronger than the same parties that shaped it; the parties went into crisis after 1989 but did not undermine it, finding a new point of balance thanks to the role of the President of the Republic. Today many do not trust the parties but there is a living social fabric with as many as 8 million Italians who move in the cooperative, social and voluntary world: they are the heart of the Republic. The challenge today is not to absolve 80 years of the Republic, but the awareness that only through a citizens’ Republic can it have a future. It is up to us citizens to be protagonists of this history, aware of inheriting a heritage of values that have given strength to the Republic”.

This was followed by the votes of the public present by raising their voices with the verdict clearly in favor of conviction with 323 votes against 282 for acquittal. (by Paolo Martini)