Who cares about 15 senators for life nominated for politics, not for other merits
The book "The senators for life seen up close" by Paolo Armaroli read by Francesco Damato
Please don't let yourself be discouraged by the 450 pages of Paolo Armaroli's latest book – actually penultimate, because the author is probably already writing another one – published by La Vela and titled by Andreotti's name I senatori a vita vista da fino . It can be read if not all in one breath, almost, given the objective abundance of paper.
Although linked – I confess – by a by now old personal friendship and artistic connections, wanting to undeservedly ennoble journalism, professional and otherwise, I immediately targeted the part of the fourth chapter of the book on life senators defined by him with a competitive spirit "abusive". And this because they were appointed by the Presidents of the Republic more for political evaluations than for the "very high merits in the social, scientific, artistic and literary fields" prescribed by article 59 of the Constitution.
Since they are 15 of the total 38 senators appointed in this capacity by almost all the presidents who succeeded one another at the Quirinale, more or less known or followed by me too in a long activity between newspapers and television, I wanted to verify how much more Paolo was able to see and find on their account between consultations of documents and confidences collected as a university professor and then also for a while as a parliamentarian. Alas, a lot, starting with the first of the list in alphabetical order.
ANDREOTTI, COLOMBO AND SPADOLINI REVIEWED BY ARMAROLI
Of Giulio Andreotti, for example, I didn't know the only presumed authenticity of famous jokes attributed to him, accrediting him as the most brilliant of politicians. It would not be his, for example, but Talleyrand's authorship of the power that "wears out those who don't have it". Not his, but not even that of St. Augustine recalled by others, but of Cardinal Francesco Selvaggini Marchetti, who died in 1951, is instead the acknowledgment that "it is a sin to think badly but often one guesses". Surely his, however, would be the "better to live than kick the bucket" opposed to Ciriaco De Mita who had complained about the way to lead at least one of his seven governments. His laticlavio, according to Armaroli, is abusive, but still "luxurious".
Emilio Colombo underlined in the book more than the contribution made in a decade to the work of the Senate with speeches and more, the embarrassment caused to Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, who had just appointed him, for a painful drug affair involving the escort and which he explained to the magistrates, telling that he had been using it for a year and a half "for therapeutic purposes". “A patch that barely covers the hole”, writes Armaroli.
Of Francesco De Martino, former secretary of the PSI, before Bettino Craxi , and vice president of the Council with the Christian Democrat Mariano Rumor at Palazzo Chigi, Armaroli writes as of "a ghost" who passed "literally unnoticed" at Palazzo Madama. Where, however, he had the good fortune to preside over the first two sessions for personal reasons at the beginning of the legislature in 1994, which brought the already physically exhausted Giovanni Spadolini to the brink of a heart attack: he too was a senator for life but above all the outgoing president of the assembly and candidate from opposition to confirmation. In the third ballot, in competition with Berlusconi's Carlo Scognamiglio, he was applauded in the hall as elected but by mistake. In reality, having recalculated, the victory was assigned to the other by a discard vote. Not even that time did De Martino break down in his sphinx figure.
With Spadolini, in the part dedicated to his laticlavio, Armaroli is rightly generous on a cultural and human level, acknowledging that he deserved even as a life senator that single, simple and at the same time austere qualification desired by himself on his tomb in Florence: "a Italian".
FANFANI, LEONE, NENNI AND NOT ONLY
Of Amintore Fanfani, returning to the alphabetical order of the list of "squatters", only Armaroli could compete with the famous "Rieccolo" given to him by Montanelli, for his ability to get up after each fall, making him change sex and comparing him to the "Elena of Faust" of Goethe much praised and much reviled”. Even though he has "a bad temper", like anyone who really has one, Paolo acknowledges that "this half-Tuscan had sweetened his" over the years, becoming "more open to dialogue than he had been in the past". It is no coincidence – allow me to recall – after the kidnapping of Aldo Moro, of whom he had been the antagonist as leader of the DC, Fanfani was among the few, in any case the most exposed in an attempt to save his life by overcoming the immovable and deadly " line of firmness” opposed to the red brigades. With which shortly after the DC would have negotiated to free the Campania regional councilor Ciro Cirillo who ended up in their bloody hands.
Of Giovanni Leone, "the seaside filler", Armaroli recalls, also as head of state unjustly dethroned "due to his non-existent involvement in the Loockeed scandal", and even in certain "a little picturesque" aspects, the figure of "a gentleman raised in the strict school of De Nicola”.
Cesare Merzagora passes the exam unscathed. Not so Mario Monti, appointed senator for life on the basis of his almost simultaneous assignment to Palazzo Chigi as prime minister, despite having been preceded to lead a government by the then governor of the Bank of Italy, Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, without the latter obtaining first the laticlavio's shield or award. Giorgio Napolitano is remembered for the too little time he lived as a life senator, from September 2005 to the following May, when he was elected President of the Republic.
Pietro Nenni is forgiven the "neutral never, ever" and assigned the qualification of "class abuser". Like Giuseppe Paratore, we remember the commendable letter written before his death to ask with discretion not to be commemorated.
I should continue to get to the letter V with Leo Valiani preceded by Ferruccio Parri, Camilla Ravera, Meuccio Ruini and Luigi Sturzo, but I have run out of space. The rest, if you want, you can read it directly while enjoying Armaroli's book too.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/paolo-armaroli-senatori-vita/ on Sun, 23 Apr 2023 04:56:28 +0000.