He made his way to intervene in the most heated moments of politics in his second seven-year term through “industrious silences”. Sergio Mattarella is increasingly breaking the mold that he himself wanted to base his mandate on. He did it – at the end of February – with the decisive warning to the Minister of the Interior Matteo Piantedosi (“never use truncheons on children”) after the police charges against the demonstrators in Pisa. He replied at the beginning of March to point out that the signature on the laws that he promulgates does not necessarily bring with it their agreement. Then, again, speaking on the Pioltello affair by praising the “precious work” of the teachers, at the center of a media (and political) storm for the choice to close the school for the end of Ramadan. Little more than a month, therefore, in which the head of state, motu propriochose to call everyone to “extra responsibility” as he told the prison police force – praised for their difficult task – but also called into question for the excessive number of suicides in prison.
The appeal to the government
Evidently tired of the pushes that were increasingly hitting the Quirinale, both from the right (including the government) and from the left, on March 5th Mattarella was forced to repeat constitutional law, the summary of which is: stop pulling me by the jacket, c ‘It is the Charter that explains everything. «Fortunately I am a president and I am not a sovereign» who, as in the times of the Albertine Statute, signed laws only if he liked them. «In Italy today there is a Republic, a very clear division of powers and it no longer works like that. The head of state has the duty to promulgate laws even if he doesn’t like them or doesn’t agree with them.” A Mattarella who therefore dedicates the heart of the message to redefining his own role which seems stretched to the liking of the parties and often used instrumentally.
The shock on the police
The images of the boys hit by the agents in Pisa on 24 February shocked Mattarella quite a bit and, in an irregular move, he called the Minister of the Interior to point out, «finding agreement», that «the authority of the Forces of the order is not measured by truncheons but by the ability to ensure security while protecting, at the same time, the freedom to express opinions publicly”. “With kids – the harshest phrase – truncheons express failure.”
The alarm about prisons
At a time when politics was chasing the record numbers of suicides among prisoners in prison (one every 60 hours), transforming them into a new battleground, Mattarella addressed the issue head-on during a meeting at the Quirinale with the Penitentiary Police – who thanked them for their efforts and “sacrifices” – but who also called for an “surplus of responsibility” given the extent of the phenomenon.
The Pioltello case
«I received and read your letter carefully and, in thanking you, I would like to tell you that I greatly appreciated it, just as – beyond the single episode, which was actually of modest importance – I appreciate the work that the teaching staff and the bodies of the institute carry out in the fulfillment of a precious and particularly demanding task”. Few but unexpected words were written by the president to the vice-principal of Iqbal Masih in Pioltello, Maria Rendani, who had addressed him inviting him to visit the institute.
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2024-04-02 12:18:34