Italy: The spirit of June 2 lives on
The beautiful and fresh face of a young woman pops out of the main page of the Milan-based “Corriere della Sera”. The headline reads “The Italian Republic is born” and was shot after the referendum that on June 2, 1946 ended the monarchy of the House of Savoy.
The photograph by Federico Patellani was to become an icon for those hopeful days of June 1946 when Italians for the first time after Unification were masters of their destiny. Anna Iberti, the girl in the photograph, was 24 when the referendum was held. She was born in 1922, the year when Benito Mussolini took power with a coup d’etat indirectly supported by King Victor Emmanuel III. 24 years later, after hundreds of thousands of deaths and infinite destructions, she was allowed to decide. It was also the first time for Italian women to vote.
28 millions citizens were eligible to vote, 25 millions (89 percent!) casted their votes to choose between monarchy or republic and to select a Constituent Assembly. Such was the passion aroused by politics in those days, when the present were ruins and hunger and future looked bleak, although full of possibilities. The energy to start afresh was there: our fathers and mothers rolled up their sleeves to rebuild the country and in few years Italy would become one of the leading industrial powerhouses in Europe.
The spirit of 1946 is frequently evoked during these terrible months, when Italy is ravaged by covid-19 epidemic and the worst economic crisis since World War II is looming, with a possible drop of 10 per cent of the GDP. We find ourselves in a very sad and difficult moment but, unlike our forefathers and foremothers, we have some certainties.
The first is our Constitution. We always found direction and solace in the clearly drafted words of our Constitution, which in its first article says: “Italy is a democratic Republic founded on labour.” During these decades we have faced many difficulties: economic crisis; major social changes; the internal movement from South to North in search of jobs; the influx of immigrants and refugees from abroad. In the ‘70s we experienced the scourge of fascist and communist terrorism. The Constitution always offered a clear path to sort out problems, following the principles of individual freedoms, equal opportunities and solidarity.
Second is our membership of the European Union and of the Atlantic Alliance. Sometimes you read reports about Italy switching allegiances, especially during the covid-19 pandemic or putting in doubt its permanence in the European Union and in the Euro. Doubts and hard discussions abound in a lively democracy, but there’s no question of where our future lies: in Europe.
Notwithstanding successive crises, the EU has proved to be the most successful experiment ever conceived by humans to restrain national egoisms. The European project is still alive and Italy will be still part of it. Without Europe there won’t be an economic recovery.
Finally, our place in the world. Art. 8 of the Constitution was a far-fetched promise after Second World War: “(…) Italy agrees, on conditions of equality with other States, to the limitations of sovereignty that may be necessary to a world order ensuring peace and justice among the Nations. Italy promotes and encourages international organisations furthering such ends.”
And this has been achieved. We are on friendly terms with almost all UN members. We continue to believe in multilateralism, in international solidarity, in the cooperation among peoples and states. We are supporting peace-keeping operations in Afghanistan and Lebanon, and promoting peace in Lybia and in the Middle East. We still have faith in working together against dangerous diseases, to fight poverty and hunger, to promote sustainable development and to confront the existential threat to humankind: global warming. That’s why Italy will be co-president with United Kingdom of the next United Nations Conference on Climate Change in 2021 (COP 26).
The pandemic has inflicted grave social and economic damages to Italy, Europe and the world. Italians will find inspiration from the spirit of 1946 to get back to their feet and rebuild the economy and those precious social contacts that make life richer and worth living.
We can start also here in Tanzania, a country that has been always dear to us, where we can play our active role to contribute to the economic and social growth of our host nation: in a Zanzibari resort, in an office in Dar es Salaam, in a mission in Mwanza, in a project in Arusha, wherever there’s an Italian. We will do it bringing with us always those fundamental and deeply felt values upon which our Republic was created 74 years ago: democracy, human rights and solidarity.
Roberto Mengoni is Italian ambassador to the United Republic of Tanzania
