Duel between motions, on April 25 tension in the Senato-Corriere.it

It was supposed to be the day of shared memory, just a few steps away from the 78th anniversary of the Liberation which falls next Tuesday. Instead, it ends with the “shame, shame” chorus chanted by the senators of the majority towards the opposition benches. The reason? Yesterday, Fdi, Lega, Ci and Forza Italia all voted together (only one abstention, Paolo Marcheschi, Fdi, who will later swear that he was also in favour) for the motion of the center-left on April 25th. However, when the count came on the second motion, that of the majority, the center-left did not reciprocate the outstretched hand: “The word anti-fascism does not appear in the document of the centre-right”, the explanation.

No unanimity: only 78 votes for the centre-right motion (FdI, FI, Lega and CI and Dafne Musolino of the Autonomies); 29 against (Pd and Mixed group) and 26 abstentions (Azione-Italia viva, Movimento 5 stelle, Pietro Patton of the Autonomies and again Paolo Marcheschi, Fdi, again forced to specify that he wanted to vote in favour).

«Say that you don’t vote for our motion because the word anti-fascism doesn’t exist – it is then the group leader Fdi Lucio Malan rose up – But it says that we condemn all totalitarianisms, therefore also fascism, it is the same thing ». The motion of the majority called for the abjuration of totalitarianisms, also and above all of communism. Thus, the Pd senator Walter Verini intervened to clarify: «We have no embarrassment to reiterate unequivocal judgments on the tragedies of the twentieth century. The Soviet concentration camps, the Stalinist massacres. Every year we have paid homage to the people massacred in the sinkholes. But in our country there was a fascist regime. And the Italian Communists fought for freedom. If we are all here today, it is because in Italy there was the anti-fascist Resistance and April 25th». Total clash.

The document presented by the opposition (133 votes in favour, one abstention), illustrated in the Chamber by Verini, was inspired by the words of life senator Liliana Segre on the first day of the 19th legislature, on 13 October 2022: «The great nations show that they are also great nations by recognizing themselves unanimously on civil holidays, finding themselves united around the carved anniversaries in the great book of the country’s history. Why shouldn’t it be like this for the Italian people? Why should April 25th, Liberation Day, May 1st, Labor Day, June 2nd, Republic Day be experienced as divisive dates, rather than in an authentic republican spirit? It must be said that Segre, through the press office of the Mixed Group, contrary to some news circulated on the eve, specified yesterday “that it is neither the promoter nor the signatory of any of the motions under discussion”.

The majority motion, illustrated by Raffaele Speranzon of Fdi, asked instead not to forget many other dates, including «March 17, proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy», April 18 (the victory of the DC over the PCI in the political elections of 1948, ed) and on November 9, the fall of the Berlin Wall. In short, divided at the goal. Even if the president of the Senate, Ignazio La Russa (Fdi), after the controversy on via Rasella, seems to be contemplating surprises for April 25: “That day I will do something that will make everyone agree…”. Yesterday, as a guest of Myrta Merlino on “L’aria che tira” on La7, Gianfranco Fini, who was one of the center-right leaders, sent precise messages: “It’s not permissible to make jokes on via Rasella, La Russa realized to have made a mistake. The values ​​of anti-fascism are the basis of our coexistence. I remember the words of Luciano Violante: “April 25 is everyone’s holiday on two conditions, that the right recognizes itself as anti-fascist and that the left does not presume to have the paternity of the Resistance”».