April 25: clash on the motions, the opposition does not vote for the majority

The opposition motion on April 25 is voted by the complete majority, but the centre-left groups do not reciprocate the outstretched hand.

This is the outcome of the votes in the Senate on April 25 and on other civil holidays. 

The word

The parliamentarians of Pd, M5s, Az-Iv support it several times in the courtroom and argue on the point that anti-fascism is the foundation of our Constitution.

Pd Senator

on the motion of the majority: "Today Minister Valditara wrote shared words on the meaning of fascism and the value of anti-fascism, and Gianfranco Fini recalled how AN recalled anti-fascism as a founding value of our democracy on many occasions. It is a pity then that this very important little word, anti-fascism, from which the system of our Constitution derives, has not even smeared the motion of the majority on April 25. An unacceptable omission, a great missed opportunity to dispel the ambiguities and reticence of the Italian right". 

Observation that

returns to the sender.

and the group leader FdI

take the floor

.

The FdI senators are startled by Boccia's words "we expected unconditional support", the Melonians ask loudly "why can't we present our own motion?".

Even from the benches of the Democratic Party there is a bit of turmoil.

President

is forced to intervene several times and to call for "a tone acceptable to all". 

The president of the Senate Ignazio la Russa

Malan

 points out that "anti-fascism" is not written anywhere in our charter: "You say you don't vote for our motion because there is no word anti-fascism: but it does say that we condemn all totalitarianisms, we are against fascism, so there is, it's the same thing."

"According to this principle - he adds - the constituent parliamentarians should not have voted for the Constitution because the word 'anti-fascist' does not appear in that text. We are amazed that you did not vote for it".

Furthermore, the governing parties are asking their adversaries to renounce totalitarianism, including and above all communism.

But even on this point the roads do not cross.

The Democratic Party replies: "The Italian Communists have had duplicities and contradictions in our history, but they fought for freedom".  

April 25, unanimous vote in the Senate on the motion of the opposition

The motion of the oppositions was illustrated by the senator of the Pd Verini, while that of the majority by the senator of FdI Raffaele Speranzon

The motion of the Democratic Party, Walter Verini's speech

"The motion that all the opposition forces have presented wants to remind and commit all the institutions to celebrate and transmit the values ​​of dates on which our democracy and our civil coexistence are based. There are many opportunities that the calendar offers us, which we celebrate with sincere participation, but we do not believe there can be any doubts on the fact that April 25th, Liberation Day from Nazi-Fascism, May 1st, Labor Day and June 2nd, Republic Day, are the ones that most of all constitute the identity nationality, the bridge between memory and the future, the DNA of a country, of a nation".

Thus

illustrated the motion of the oppositions on April 25th.

If we are all here today, it is because there was anti-fascist resistance in Italy and April 25th.

If we can work - as we tried to do last week - to overcome the hate season of the seventies it is precisely because in Italy there was the anti-fascist resistance, the liberation and April 25, democracy and the constitution".

Democratic Party Senator Walter Verini

The motion of FdI, the speech of Raffaele Speranzon

"There are fundamental dates in the historical memory of our people that represent national consciousness. Something that must be shared. Stories of freedom and democracy that must eliminate all forms of totalitarianism and intolerance. They are significant pages for our unity. Dates like 9 November, the day of freedom which commemorates the demolition of the Berlin wall. And April 25th must become a feast of reconciliation, as President Ciampi taught us".

declared it in the Senate Hall

, deputy group leader of the Brothers of Italy at Palazzo Madama, illustrating the majority motion on 25 April.

"I believe - he adds - that anti-fascism has been the object of an embezzlement and a distortion of its original meaning. It was supposed to be the unifying value between right and left, but it has become a divisive element. Not because the center-right moderates are less anti-fascist , but because they are not anti-fascists as the left would like: committed to distributing freedom licenses. And which in its history has led to acts of brutal violence in the name of anti-fascism such as the Primavalle stake. Lastly, I recall the resolution of the EU Parliament not voted for by the left which had the aim of condemning all forms of twentieth-century totalitarianism.

The Senator of the Brothers of Italy Raffaele Speranzon

Voting results

Thus the Senate Hall unanimously approves the opposition motion on April 25 with

.

Thunderous applause from the Chamber, so much so that President

intervenes: "even applause can sometimes seem like a provocation".

The majority motion was instead approved with

The vote is accepted by the majority senators with the cry of "shame" towards the opposition benches.

No opposition and only one abstention.

To ride this choice alone is the senator of the Brothers of Italy Paolo Marcheschi.

The latter, according to the printouts, also abstains on the majority motion together with the parliamentarians of Azione-Italia viva, the Movimento 5 stelle and Pietro Patton of the Autonomies.

The majority document obtained 78 votes in favour, 29 against and 26 abstentions.

FdI, FI, Lega and CI and Dafne Musolino of the Autonomies voted yes;

instead they vote against the Pd and the Mixed group.

The position of Liliana Segre

The press office of the Mixed Group in the Senate announces that "the life senator

specifies that she is not the promoter, nor the signatory of any motion, of those under discussion today in the Senate Hall". 

The leader of the Pd Francesco Boccia in the Chamber underlines how "our motion ideally wanted to unite all the political forces of this chamber in the sign of Liliana Segre's speech, made on the first day of this legislature. That speech reminded us of which dates unite our Republic and that ours is an anti-fascist history. We must renew this memory for all of us and for our children. This is why I would have expected the majority to support our motion without presenting another one". 

Minister Valditara, fascism was bad

"April 25 is a fundamental date in the history of our Republic: it marks the defeat of the fascist dictatorship, the return to freedom, democracy and the end of the war. It is therefore a day of celebration that must be celebrated in joy and harmony. Woe to one day of partisan and division overshadowing the suspicion that democratically elected forces in Parliament are fascists".

This is what Giuseppe Valditara, Minister of Education and Merit, writes in his speech on the pages of Corriere della Sera.

For the head of the viale Trastevere dicastery "the risk is, if anything, that with the excuse of anti-fascism we will return to the dark years of violent protests in which attempts were made to delegitimize all democratic forces not overtly leftist".

Valditara adds: "

we therefore declare ourselves anti-fascists because we declare ourselves for individual freedoms, for the rule of law, for popular sovereignty, for the equal dignity of all human beings - he explains -.

Many elements of fascism are found in communism and in many other ideologies and totalitarian regimes that bloodied the 20th century.

Today anti-Semitism is breathed even in those lands of Europe where it is increasingly difficult to say and behave like Jews due to a certain Islamist extremism, totalitarianism is found in those universities that do not allow critical thinking with respect to political correctness, the 'intolerance emerges in that press which distributes certificates of fascism to anyone who does not like it, and in that politics which considers

on the other hand an enemy to delegitimize and not an adversary with whom to dialogue even from different positions". At the same time, adds the minister, "it is not fascism, for example, to defend borders, celebrate the identity of a people, consider positive idea of ​​homeland and protect national interests.

These are values ​​that are widely shared and practiced in Western democracies.

We must therefore be careful not to abuse the concept of anti-fascism, considering it a good license to discriminate against political opponents and to evoke the danger of an improbable return to dictatorship". For the minister, therefore, "25 April is a holiday for all of us" .

identity of a people, consider the idea of ​​homeland positive and protect national interests.

These are values ​​that are widely shared and practiced in Western democracies.

We must therefore be careful not to abuse the concept of anti-fascism, considering it a good license to discriminate against political opponents and to evoke the danger of an improbable return to dictatorship". For the minister, therefore, "25 April is a holiday for all of us" .

identity of a people, consider the idea of ​​homeland positive and protect national interests.

These are values ​​that are widely shared and practiced in Western democracies.

We must therefore be careful not to abuse the concept of anti-fascism, considering it a good license to discriminate against political opponents and to evoke the danger of an improbable return to dictatorship". For the minister, therefore, "25 April is a holiday for all of us" .