Words and thoughts from presidents of the Republic
Sister Anna Monia Alfieri's notebook
The President of the Republic is the Head of State and represents national unity. So says article 87 of our Constitution. Representing national unity therefore means knowing and fully embodying the values of the Constitution, the foundation of our civil coexistence. Italians, therefore, look to the President of the Republic as a figure above the parties, a sort of pater (or even mater, why not?) Patriae who, regardless of party membership, has earned the esteem over the years and respect for all the forces of society and politics. Furthermore, through their President, Italians feel they are ideally represented abroad and it is therefore in their keen interest, or at least so it should be, that a figure with a high political and institutional profile is chosen. Anyone who comes to the Quirinale as President knows that setting foot in the home of Italians means that, over the course of seven years, their task will be to serve the country in the highest possible way.
If I think about my experience, I have always seen the President of the Republic as a moral and civil reference point. Born in 1975, I remember very well the Presidents Francesco Cossiga, even better Oscar Luigi Scalfaro and Carlo Azeglio Ciampi. Extraordinary figures of state servants in difficult moments of our republican history.
I remember that I was struck by the authoritativeness and sobriety of the inauguration speech given, as usual, to the Chambers assembled by President Scalfaro himself. I was 17 then. Here are just a few passages:
“After your vow, I stopped in silence to meditate, to pray, to ask for light and strength and capacity for sacrifice from God, in whom I believe with so much poverty of heart. I stopped to ask for protection and courage from she who is humble and high, more than a creature, is the mother of God and of man. And there, in meditation, I thought of asking all of you, all of you, each without distinction to help me fill my gaps, to increase my will, to be generous with your advice, to comfort my inadequacy. But precisely because I have expressed sentiments of my religious faith, in this solemn hall I feel I bow to the religious faith of every believer of every other faith. I feel the need to bow to the free choice of those who do not welcome transcendent thoughts and values into their soul. My devotion to everyone's freedom of conscience, as well as respect for a principle of natural law enshrined in the Constitutional Charter, is heartfelt, profound and devoted respect, because freedom of conscience is the core of the freedom and dignity of the human person. So let's meet on human values: they are the universal denominator! Let us meet on true, humble, silent but concrete love for our homeland, which has the right to our firm will for a true unity on human values that do not fade ”.
Extraordinary words that still today teach everyone not only the true meaning of the secular state (I remember that Scalfaro was a Franciscan Tertiary) but also the attitude, made of profound respect for others, their positions, with the desire to find ground common discussion and dialogue for the greater interest of citizens. Another passage from that speech is also significant: “I reread the words that De Gasperi wrote to me on 6 August 1954, a few days after his death,« a death like that of an ancient patriarch », wrote Saragat. "What we must transmit above all to one another is the sense of the service of neighbor as the Lord has indicated it to us, translated and implemented in the widest forms of human solidarity, without boasting of the profound inspiration that moves us and so that the eloquence of the facts betrays the source of our humanitarianism and our sociality ”. A lesson for Catholics who want to do politics. Here, I believe that in the words of President Scalfaro there is a perfect synthesis of the qualities that Italians expect from the President: a person who does not hide his ideas but respects those who have different ones, a person who is about to fulfill the high task by relying on the help of others, having the Constitution as a point of reference.
If we look at the men who succeeded one another at the Quirinale, we find distinguished jurists (De Nicola, Segni, Leone, Cossiga), internationally renowned economists (Einaudi, Ciampi, the latter with a first degree in Literature!), Personalities with a very profound historical, juridical, political culture, formed first in the ranks of anti-fascism, then of the Constituent Assembly. Certainly, the generation of the Constituents ended by the natural course of events, but we can still count on figures who have drawn from them the example, the practice, the righteousness. President Mattarella was and still is an example of this.
I cited Oscar Luigi Scalfaro but I want to cite the example and the words of other Presidents as well. Beginning with Sandro Pertini and what he said at his inauguration which took place close to the killing of Aldo Moro: «Against this violence no yield. We must firmly defend the Republic, whatever it costs to us. We are determined opponents of violence, because we are staunch defenders of democracy and the life of every citizen. And our minds are presented with the painful image of a friend so dear to us, of an honest man, of a politician with a strong talent and a vast culture: Aldo Moro. What a void he left in his party and in this Assembly! If he hadn't been cruelly murdered, he, not me, would be speaking to you today from this seat. " What righteousness emerges from these words. Again: Lastly, I cannot fail to mention the patriots with whom I shared the prisons of the special court, the risks of the anti-fascist struggle and of the Resistance. I cannot fail to recall that my conscience as a free man was formed at the school of the labor movement in Savona and that it was reinvigorated by always looking at the bright examples of Giacomo Matteotti, Giovanni Amendola and Piero Gobetti, Carlo Rosselli, Don Minzoni and by Antonio Gramsci, my unforgettable prison companion. I remember this with pride, not to reawaken old resentments, because nothing positive is built on resentments, neither in morals nor in politics. " And he concluded his speech by saying that he wanted to be "the President of the Republic of all Italians, brother to all in the love of country and in the constant aspiration for freedom and justice".
This is what it means that the President represents all Italians. This is the value of the fraternity that our society so badly needs, that fraternity that must become a true cultural category to get out of the swamp into which the covid risks plunging us.
In our republican history, in which governments fell and alternated, the President of the Republic has always remained a solid point of reference: going up to the Hill has always meant addressing those who would solve the situation, always attracting criticism but never responding by exacerbating the tones or entering the political dialectic. Again, the Presidents of the Republic have had to face moments of serious crisis and have always done so with seriousness and institutional gravity: just think of President Leone in the dramatic moments of the years of lead and the kidnapping and killing of Aldo Moro or, again, the same President Scalfaro who had to face the protests of the Palermitans at the funeral of Judge Borsellino. It was he who had started his mandate following the Capaci attack.
How can we fail to mention President Cossiga, the one who had to face the kidnapping of his friend Aldo Moro as Minister of the Interior and uphold the line of refusing negotiations with the terrorists. One can only imagine the drama experienced in the depths of one's conscience. He who, years later, will have the courage to tell a Brigadier that he too had contributed to the killing of dear Aldo. It was precisely he who had to face the precursors of what would have turned out to be the crisis of the first Republic, a crisis that would have canceled the party in which he had been active since his youth. In the 1991 Year End Speech, the shortest in the history of the Year End Speeches, he tried to call politics to a high moral sense: " dignity of a free man, to my costume of frankness, to my duties towards the nation. And this right now at the end of my mandate which will expire on July 3, 1992. This behavior would make me violate the commandment that I have given myself, for example of a great Saint [Thomas More] and a statesman, and to whom I tried to remain humbly faithful: to always privilege one's own upright conscience, to be a good servant of the law, and therefore of tradition, but above all of God, that is, of the truth. And then it seems to me better to be silent. " Shortly thereafter, the Tangentopoli scandal would break out.
Through the words of Pertini, Cossiga, Scalfaro we can grasp useful indications for our present. Who do we want to continue this tradition of democratic values, of devotion to the Constitution, of vigilant openness to changes in society? Who in the current political scenario do we believe has such qualities and is worthy of joining this noble tradition? Who do we believe has a past free from shadows, accusations, trials and who can fully represent the great values of the Italian people? Again, who do we believe has the authority to remind fellow citizens, especially the youngest, to great values, commitment, and the construction of a greater good than that of the individual?
I conclude with the words of Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, the great pro-European: “With the help of God, with the trust of the Italians, I will be faithful to my oath. I will be faithful to the values of freedom, justice and democracy which are the foundation of the republican Constitution ”.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/parole-e-pensieri-da-presidenti-della-repubblica/ on Sun, 09 Jan 2022 07:27:10 +0000.