On a cold day, with overcast skies and rough seas, over 200 people who arrived from Italy in Hammamet paid homage to the former socialist leader and Prime Minister Bettino Craxi on the occasion of 25th anniversary of his passing, which took place in this Tunisian seaside town on 19 January 2000. An event in which the children Stefania and Bobo, the president of the Senate, Ignazio La Russa, and the vice prime minister and foreign minister Antonio Tajani took part, made possible thanks to the Craxi foundation which organized initiatives for the anniversary.
In the morning, Stefania Craxi, today senator of Forza Italia and president of the Foreign and Defense commission of Palazzo Madama, meeting journalists, observed how her father had “left behind many insights. I think of Italy’s role in the Mediterranean, of the concept of homeland, which he was the first to pronounce on the left and which borrows from the Risorgimento, to the battle for justice”. Tangentopoli, he added, represented a “bad page” in the history of Italy which “has left distortions on our political and institutional system and until we come to terms with republican history to the end, even with the bad season of ‘Mani politè, it will be difficult to resume the normal democratic course.”
“The centre-right institutions – he then highlighted – have come often in recent years. Those who have never come are important institutional or political exponents of the centre-left”. From that political area “no one has yet put their feet in the sand of Hammamet”, Craxi finally said.
The first appointment in the commemoration program was the inauguration of the ‘Faces of the Twentieth Century’ exhibition, set up at the international cultural institute of Hammamet ‘Dar Sebastien’ and organized by the Craxi foundation. Upon his arrival, stormed by reporters, La Russa stated: “We all agree on one fact: it shouldn’t have happened that Craxi died in exile, that he could not be treated in Italy”.
At the end of the visit, speaking in front of those present, he added: “At the beginning of the 2000s I came here to Hammamet privately to bring a flower to Craxi’s grave, because even then I believed that theItaly had a debt towards him. Bettino Craxi, once the winds of news have calmed down, becomes a character in history and like all the great characters in history he can have lights, he can have shadows, but he can no longer be used by one side or the other to support theses that affect the ‘actuality”.
“I believe that the time for invectives is now over – he underlined The Russian – Craxi must be studied as a great figure in history and there is no figure in history who is not discussed for better or for worse.”
In the afternoon, a short Catholic commemoration was held at the Christian cemetery, in the shadow of the Medina, where Craxi is buried. In addition to his children and La Russa, Tajani was also present. “It’s right to be here,” he told the press, Bettino Craxi was “a great Italianhe shouldn’t have died in exile, exile is something that reminds us of dark times.”
Craxi, continued the leader of Forza Italia, was “one of the great protagonists, together with Andreotti and Berlusconi, of Italian foreign policy, he was the man who had the courage to make it clear that there was a substantial difference between socialism and communism, to defend the autonomy of Italy, to look carefully at the Middle East, to wage great battles including those for guarantees, we remember the victory in the referendum on the civil liability of magistrates and we remember the whole affair of the escalator”. In short, “he was a great protagonist, prime minister, a man of great depth and great friend of Silvio Berlusconi. It is right – concluded Tajani – to pay homage to politicians who must be in the family album, at least in the family my political family”.
This morning on the sidelines of the EPP meeting in Berlin, Tajani had already underlined how it was “right that as a representative of the government and as secretary of Forza Italia” he went to “remember a political figure who was unfairly persecuted by a justicialist fury of the past. A man who gave a lot to Italian politics.”
Many bouquets of flowers placed on Craxi’s tomb and endless messages written in the book next to it, always open, available to those who want to express their feelings. Tajani himself laid a bouquet of flowers before leaving the cemetery together with Stefania Craxi and saying goodbye after sipping mint tea with her in the seafront bar where Bettino went trying to see the Italian coast from afar.
“It is right that as a representative of the government and as secretary of Forza Italia I go to remember a political figure – Tajani remarks – unjustly persecuted by a justicialist fury of the past. A man who has given a lot to Italian politics” and he added “it is right to stay here”, Craxi was “a great Italian, he shouldn’t have died in exile, exile is something that reminds us of dark times”.