What Cecilia Sala’s liberation teaches
Cecilia Sala represented the perfect intersection between opposing political, even before legal, needs. Guiglia 's notebook
All is well that begins very badly. When the institutions work together, there is no impossible task for Italy. “It was a great team effort,” said Giorgia Meloni and Antonio Tajani, the main but, indeed, not the only architects of the unexpected and rapid release of Cecilia Sala, a journalist detained for twenty days in Iran on evanescent charges.
However, for that regime of oppressive and oppressive ayatollahs even nothing can be a serious fault deserving of punishment. Especially if the incarceration of the innocent serves to keep the Italian government on edge, dealing with the mess involving the Iranian engineer and drone expert Mohammad Abedini-Najafabadi, detained in Milan on a warrant issued by the United States. Where he is considered an accomplice to terrorism. Accusation which the engineer denies.
And so our country finds itself between two fires: the American request for the suspect's extradition and the Iranian request for his return home.
Cecilia Sala represented the perfect intersection between opposing political, even before legal, needs. Hence the surprise flight of the Prime Minister to Florida last Saturday to try to resolve the tangled dispute directly at the source, with Donald Trump, who in about ten days will take office as the 47th president of the United States.
But the contextual, long and discreet activity of Italian diplomacy and secret services behind the scenes was also successful. A very significant circumstance, moreover: it means that our country boasts good connections for negotiating and therefore enjoys the credibility and reliability of its representatives even in contexts in which even the same possibility of interacting would be impracticable for other European nations.
Yes, it was a great choral performance for a good cause. This is demonstrated by the compliments from the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, to Giorgia Meloni, but also by the applause and applause of all the opposition. A fact which, in turn, is good news in the good news of Cecilia having returned home to her loved ones. It means that, when a national interest is at stake, and in this case it certainly was, at least for 24 hours the left and the right cease to be such and join hands in a civil and patriotic spirit. It should happen more often, but let's be happy with this first time – after two-odd years of Meloni's legislature and government – which sees parliamentarians rejoice without distinction of party and breathe a sigh of relief to the many Italians who were following the case with apprehension.
And no conspiracy of the type "but what did Tehran get in return?" can spoil this beautiful day of Italian celebration. The engineer claimed by the ayatollahs is in the hands of our judiciary, which is also independent of any suggestion of benevolence, and which will be able to apply laws and treaties according to the established facts. We are not in the bazaar: in the liberal democracies of Europe the institutions are a serious thing.
As Italy has just demonstrated.
Published in L'Arena di Verona, Il Giornale di Vicenza, Bresciaoggi and Gazzetta di Mantova
www.federicoguiglia.com
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/che-cosa-insegna-la-liberazione-di-cecilia-sala/ on Sat, 11 Jan 2025 05:18:13 +0000.