From the march on Rome and the Shoah to the Constitution. Liliana Segre’s full speech to the Senate

Liliana Segre, senator for life and Holocaust survivor, presides over the first session of the Senate, greeted with a standing ovation from the Chamber. “In Italy the main anchor around which the unity of our people must manifest itself is the Republican Constitution, which is not a piece of paper but is the testament of a hundred thousand dead who fell in the long struggle for freedom”, says the senator in her opening speech in the Chamber. “Today I am particularly excited by the role that fate reserves for me today”, says Segre, after having addressed “a warm greeting to the President of the Republic”, and “a thought” to Pope Francis. “In this month of October – he continues – in which the centenary of the march on Rome falls, which started the fascist dictatorship, it is up to someone like me to temporarily assume the presidency of this temple of democracy which is the Senate of the Republic”. “And the symbolic value – adds the senator – of this casual circumstance is amplified in my mind because. You see, in my day school started in October; a day like this in 1938, disconsolate and lost, she was forced by the racist laws to leave her elementary school desk empty, today she finds herself for a strange fate even on the most prestigious bench of the Senate “.

The integral speech by Liliana Segre

Senator colleagues, Senator colleagues,

I extend my warmest greetings to the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella and to this House. With respect, I turn my thoughts to Pope Francis. Certain of interpreting the sentiments of the whole Assembly, I would like to address to the President Emeritus Giorgio Napolitano, who was unable to preside over today’s session, my best wishes and the hope of seeing him return soon re-established in the Senate. President Napolitano instructs me to share these words with you: “I wish to express to all the senators and senators, both old and new, my best wishes for the good work, at the exclusive service of our country and of the parliamentary institution to which I have dedicated a large part of my life ”.

Of course, I too address a particularly warm greeting to all the new colleagues and to all the new colleagues, who I imagine overwhelmed by the thought of the responsibility that awaits them and by the austere solemnity of this room, just as it was for me when I first entered it. time on tiptoe. As usual, however, I would also like to express some brief personal considerations.

“In recent weeks, the chilling atmosphere of the war that has returned to our Europe, close to us, with all its load of death, destruction, cruelty, terror, an endless madness looms over us all. I join the precise words of the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella: “Peace is urgent and necessary. The way to rebuild it passes through a restoration of the truth, of international law, of the freedom of the Ukrainian people “.

Today I am particularly excited in front of the role that fate reserves for me on this day. In this month of October in which the centenary of the March on Rome falls, which started the fascist dictatorship, it is up to someone like me to temporarily take over the presidency of this temple of democracy which is the Senate of the Republic. And the symbolic value of this random circumstance is amplified in my mind because, you see, in my day school started in October; and it is impossible for me not to feel a kind of dizziness when remembering that that same little girl who on a day like this in 1938, disconsolate and lost, was forced by racist laws to leave her elementary school desk empty, today finds herself for a strange destiny even on the most prestigious bench of the Senate!

The Senate of the nineteenth legislature is a deeply renewed institution, not only in the political balance and in the people of the elected, not only because for the first time young people aged 18 to 25 were able to vote for this Chamber, but above all because for the for the first time the number of elected representatives is reduced to 200. Belonging to such a rarefied forum can only increase in all of us the awareness that the country is watching us, that our responsibilities are great but at the same time the opportunities to lead by example are great . Setting an example does not only mean doing our simple duty, that is, fulfilling our office with “discipline and honor”, working hard to serve the institutions and not to use them. We could also allow ourselves the pleasure of leaving out of this assembly the shouted policy, which has contributed so much to growing disaffection from the vote, interpreting instead a “high” and noble policy, which without detracting from the firmness of the various convictions, gives proof of respect for your opponents, sincerely open yourself to listening, express yourself with kindness, even meekness.

The elections of 25 September saw, as it should be, a lively competition between the different camps that presented the country with alternative programs and often opposing visions. And the people decided. It is the essence of democracy. The majority who left the polls have the right and duty to govern; minorities have the equally fundamental task of opposing. Common to all must be the imperative to preserve the institutions of the Republic, which belong to everyone, which are owned by no one, which must operate in the interest of the country, which must guarantee all parties. The great mature democracies prove to be such if, above the party divisions and the exercise of different roles, they know how to find themselves united in an essential nucleus of shared values, respected institutions, recognized emblems.

In Italy the main anchor around which the unity of our people must manifest itself is the Republican Constitution, which as Piero Calamandrei said is not a piece of paper, but is the testament of 100,000 dead fallen in the long struggle for freedom; a fight that did not start in September 1943 but that ideally sees Giacomo Matteotti as leader. The Italian people have always shown great attachment to its Constitution, they have always felt it a friend. On every occasion in which they have been questioned, citizens have always chosen to defend it, because they felt defended by it. And even when the Parliament has not been able to respond to the request to intervene on regulations that do not comply with constitutional principles – and unfortunately this has often happened – our fundamental Charter has still allowed the Constitutional Court and the judiciary to carry out a precious work of jurisprudential application, always making the law evolve. Of course, the Constitution too is perfectible and can be amended (as it itself provides in art.138), but allow me to observe that if the energy that has been spent for decades to change the Constitution – moreover with modest and sometimes pejorative results – had been instead used to implement it, ours would be a fairer and even happier country. The thought inevitably runs to art. 3, in which the constituent fathers and mothers were not satisfied with banning those discrimination based on “sex, race, language, religion, political opinions, personal and social conditions”, which had been the essence of the ancien regime. They also wanted to leave a perpetual task to the “Republic”: “to remove the obstacles of an economic and social nature which, effectively limiting the freedom and equality of citizens, prevent the full development of the human person and the effective participation of all workers to the political, economic and social organization of the country “. It is not poetry and it is not utopia: it is the North Star that should guide us all, even if we have different programs to follow it: remove those obstacles!

The great nations, then, prove to be such also by recognizing themselves chorally in the civil holidays, finding themselves in brotherhood around the anniversaries carved in the great book of homeland history. Why shouldn’t this also be the case for the Italian people? Why should they be lived as “divisive” dates, rather than with an authentic republican spirit, April 25 Liberation Day, May 1 Labor Day, June 2 Republic Day? Also on this theme of the full sharing of national holidays, of the dates that mark a pact between generations, between memory and the future, the value of example could be great, of new and perhaps unexpected gestures. Another terrain on which it is desirable to overcome the fences and assume a common responsibility is that of the fight against the spread of the language of hatred, against the barbarization of public debate, against the violence of prejudices and discrimination. Allow me to recall a virtuous precedent: in the past legislature the work of the “Extraordinary Commission for the fight against the phenomena of intolerance, racism, anti-Semitism and incitement to hatred and violence” concluded with the unanimous approval of a document of address. A sign of an awareness and a will across the political spectrum, which is essential to persist.

I conclude with two wishes: I hope that the new legislature will see a concerted commitment by all the members of this assembly to uphold the prestige of the Senate, substantially protect its prerogatives, reaffirm the centrality of Parliament in deeds and not in words. A drift has been complained for a long time, a mortification of the role of the legislative power due to the abuse of the emergency decree and the use of the vote of confidence. And the serious emergencies that have characterized the last few years could only aggravate the trend. In my naivety as a mother of a family, but also according to my firm conviction, I believe that it is necessary to interrupt the long series of errors of the past and for this it would be enough for the majority to remember the abuses they denounced by governments when they were a minority, and that minorities remembered the excesses they attributed to the opposition when they ruled. A healthy and loyal institutional collaboration, without detracting from the physiological distinction of roles, would allow the majority of legislative production to be brought back to its natural bed, while at the same time guaranteeing certain times for voting.

Finally, I hope that the whole Parliament, with unity of purpose, will be able to put in place in collaboration with the Government an extraordinary and very urgent commitment to respond to the cry of pain that comes from so many families and from so many companies struggling under the blows of the inflation and the exceptional surge in energy costs, which see a dark future, which fear that inequalities and injustices will further expand rather than shrink. In this sense, we will always have the European Union at our side with its values ​​and the concrete solidarity it has shown itself capable of in recent years of serious health and social crisis. There is not a moment to lose: the clear signal must come from democratic institutions that no one will be left alone, before fear and anger can reach warning levels and overflow.

Senators and Senators, dear Colleagues, good work!