From Sanremo to the factories: Mattarella like Pertini? The turning point of a president who remains true to himself

Sergio Mattarella as Sandro Pertinipointed out a leftist artist such as Piero Pelu, who showed up on the stage of the concert with a shirt with the image of the head of state with the punk crest. “I want it! Where can you buy it?” his spokesperson tweeted, John Grasso. The president was not in front of the TV last night, but he saw the photo. After the hosted in Sanremo, star at the big concert. And one wonders if Mattarella has changed or if Italy has changed.

Like Pertini, Mattarella goes to the factories, exalts the partisan struggle (“now and always Resistance!”), bows down in bitter solitude in front of the coffins of migrants who died in Cutro, houses disabled people in his building, defends students beaten by the Fascistelli, lunch in places confiscated from the Camorra, thunder against poor work and precariousness, visit Auschwitz, defend the Constitution to the limit, against those who dream of a presidential twist. Lined up are unheard of facts, especially in this season of institutional cynicism. They represent an undoubted difference, a clarity of mind, while the extreme right occupies Palazzo Chigi for the first time. And it is almost worth updating the verses of Toto Cutugno, “a partisan as president”.

Mattarella, however, is always himself. It is the context that has changed. And what makes him theother: a man with the feeling of role, a politician who assumes the necessary gravitas on public occasions, we like this and it already seems a lot to us in a country where the president of the Senate, the second office of the state Ignatius LaRussa, on 25 April he flew to Prague or talks about Inter during parliamentary sessions. Even those who think of Mattarella as the leader of the opposition are wrong. This is exactly what the Quirinale does not want: a president of the Republic is the president of the Republic, and therefore he is loyal to the government elected by the people, respects the prerogatives of Parliament, and naturally scrutinizes its provisions according to constitutional science and international obligations.

“Sandro, how would you like to be remembered?” he asked Pertini, Enzo Biagi, in 1981. “Like a man who has always been sincere. One without arrogance, without pride, who loved the Italians, the young”. We are sure that Mattarella would sign these words for himself. Many years ago they asked a George Manganelli what kind of man he would have wanted at the Quirinale. “A man who has no legitimate expectations,” replied the great writer. Up to now he has been the great strength of the current tenant at the Colle, someone who hasn’t bothered to be there, hasn’t given in to vanity to become a punk. He has become us. He has become theotherby contrast and acclaim.