Not so much the debts, made to invest in the purchase of the fund where the restaurant is located, but the uncertainty about the future - with the nightmare of a new lockdown - tormented Luca, the 44-year-old restaurateur found suicidal, hanged, in Florence. An extreme gesture behind which there is probably not a single cause, but his colleagues and trade associations have no doubts: the crisis in the sector following the covid emergency had a weight. Perhaps crucial.
Luca certainly shared the discomfort of many traders for whom cash flow is decisive to bring the accounts back. And, says those who knew him well, the unknowns about the future - does it open, close, will there be a new lockdown? - they "confused him, made him fragile". He did not kill himself from depression or personal problems, they assure. He left no notes, no messages, there is no dark evil. In the afternoon, his brother, Marco, clarifies, who on the Italia 7 TV station frames the gesture in a general atmosphere, which suddenly made Luca weak. "They are saying wrong things and I want to correct them. Fortunately there were no economic difficulties because the company was very healthy. It is a family business, since 1987 my father had the place and we have always had it. no debts or loans were ever made.
They weren't done until the lockdown ", he reconstructs, because" about a month and a half earlier my brother bought the fund on a corporate lease ".
Then Italy closes. And Luca's and his family's restaurant suddenly zeroes the revenues.
Therefore, for Marco, "the problem was the uncertainty of the future, not the debt" that undermined Luca's psyche "because when one makes an investment he does it to try to expand the company and to get better. was the unknown as to what would happen next ". "They didn't give you the certainty - he says again, using an impersonal form -, a new closure, a new lockdown, that's what made the person fragile". Marco explains: "If in 40 years a company is used to paying everyone, paying debts to be regular, but then they tell you 'close, take a loan and get by yourself', this thing has tormented, made a fragile one person who is not used to debt ". Marco speaks of the "remoteness of the institutions" during the sanitary confinement and then of the relaunch at the end of May "when we reopened to show that we were there and wanted to give a service. But it was just us ...", he sadly acknowledges. Now the family asks for silence, it is difficult to assess what to do, there is great pain. "We just want respect, we don't want media or political speculation", concludes Marco.
The shutter remains lowered in the restaurant in via Verdi, on the axis between Piazza Signoria and Piazza Santa Croce, a lot of tourism in normal times but also many Florentines. Immediately, upon hearing the news of Luca's death, the rumors of fellow exhibitors became strong. And the cause was seen, in fact, in the crisis. The unease is widespread, tourism does not turn to these activities. Confcommercio and Confesercenti speak of "everyone's defeat" and regret not having been able to affect the negotiating tables more. The categories of artisans sympathize and feel in the same boat. According to the Federation of Chefs, this is an "announced tragedy". Mayor Dario Nardella went to visit the family and asks everyone, speaking to the city, to remain united by inviting them to recollect. The president of the Regional Council Eugenio Giani, during the election campaign, warns: "It is a cry of alarm". "Gesture that must make us think", says the opponent Susanna Ceccardi. From Rome Giorgia Meloni talks about "a story that leaves us petrified, and that tells the drama of hundreds of thousands of entrepreneurs crushed by the serious economic and employment crisis caused by the Coronavirus".