Italy’s National Unity was proclaimed exactly 150 years ago. To celebrate this anniversary, I have decided to attend a gathering of 100 young students, some of whom are Italian or of Italian origin, all of them from Maltese schools.
The reason I have decided to spend the whole morning with the students is because I think such celebrations should be dedicated first of all to them, to the younger generation.
In Italy, as well as here in Malta and elsewhere, we have scheduled several events throughout the year. One of the most prominent will be the reopening of the church of St Catherine in Valletta, with wonderful works of art by Mattia Preti (there Mattia built up the team that later undertook the works at St John’s Co-Cathedral), with the generous help of Rimorchiatori Riuniti and Tug Malta, Costa Crociere, Grimaldi Group, Cantieri Palumbo and Ignazio Messina.
The Italian peninsula was united in antiquity and remained that way for many centuries. But our very recent unification, as we know it today, was accomplished 150 years ago, on March 17, 1861, when the House of Savoy assumed the kingship of a new, united Italian state.
Italy participated in the formation and the dissemination of liberal ideas that were widespread in the 19th century. It translated those ideas in its unification, which served as an example to others in Europe. These ideas fuelled the struggle for independence and freedom from foreign domination or influence where many young Italians lost their lives. Some of our exiles found refuge in Malta and some are buried here.
We overcame many challenges. We are a Catholic people and it was therefore difficult to find a solution when Rome was declared the capital of the new kingdom. The successful formula “libera Chiesa in libero Stato” – or, to put it in Cavour’s words, “we are, therefore, to go to Rome, but without diminishing the true independence of the Pope.
We must go to Rome without allowing the civil authority to extend its rule over the spiritual order” – has allowed the Holy Father, as we see today, to carry out his ecumenical role with, possibly, an even greater prestige. The second challenge was due to the fact that Italians were – and fortunately still are – very different from one another: it was not easy from day one of unification to rule them all under one flag (sometimes it is a headache even today but we like it that way).
Soon after, Italy rose to be counted among the foremost European countries, the economy developed and the standard of living improved for everybody. After two world wars, with their tragedies, victories, mistakes, hopes, with the fall of nazism/fascism and through the Resistenza and our fight for freedom, we started afresh. In 1946, a referendum abolished the monarchy and proclaimed the republic. In 1948, our Constitution came into force. We then witnessed what many hailed “il miracolo economico” (the economic miracle). And then, once more, the difficulties, the fight against terrorism and again success.
We are now exposed to the financial and economic crisis that has hit our hemisphere. However, we can count on two strengths. None of our banks has been severely hit because our financial institutions are traditionally used to avoiding risky operations. On the other hand, most of the economic activity by our companies – some of which belong to big conglomerates such as Finmeccanica, Eni, Fiat etc. and which are worldwide leaders in many sectors – can be attributed to tens of thousands of SMEs. These small- and medium-sized enterprises, many with boasting top brands and so creative, have always shown great innovation and entrepreneurship. They are often organised in very efficient clusters – a modern form of industrial concentration many are trying to imitate.
In foreign policy, there is an article in our Constitution which comes to my mind.
I refer to the one that allows us to accept limitations on our sovereignty, under certain conditions, for the greater good. I am not a constitutional expert but I guess the words used in article 11 of the Italian Constitution are not common. It is an article rooted very deeply in our history.
The “idea d’Europa” in its modern meaning (as found already in Machiavelli) goes back a long way and is very close to all Italians (in spite of what you might hear them saying). Alcide de Gasperi, together with his French and German counterparts, was one of the major political figures of post-war Europe who launched the project that led to what we today call the European Union.
Similarly, our Atlanticist position in the confrontation between the two blocs of the Cold War has been very clear from the start, when we joined the alliance at its inception and, later, Nato. Our soldiers, who still sacrifice their lives today in many peace-keeping missions in the Balkans, in Lebanon, in Afghanistan, honour this commitment.
The role we carry out in the UN is coherent with our history: in 1764, Cesare Beccaria was the first European (and possibly the first person in the world) to write against the death penalty. Italy today leads the campaign at the UN for resolutions calling for a moratorium on the death penalty.
We do not seek to export a particular form of governance or society to our neighbours because we have learnt this from our long history and because we understand that our model is too sui generis, peculiar to ourselves (sometimes not even we grasp it entirely). We feel neither superior nor inferior to anybody.
We have been emigrants and just as we are still grateful to those countries that welcomed us when our nationals were seeking work – in Europe, in the United States, in Latin America and, like many Maltese people, in Australia – we are welcoming anyone who wants to come to live and work in our country, within the limitations of our objective capabilities and the law.
People often speak of Italian “gusto”, design, fashion, food etc. These are synthetic expressions, maybe the most apparent and attractive.
There are many more which are less obvious and are still equally successful.
They are hardwired into our people and our land, the fruit of the patient cultivation of a way of life. Most of all they are the product of values embedded in the 150 years of our recent past. These values are still today a point of reference for our youths who, rightly so, try to express them in their own way. Reading through history with them serves the purpose of helping our young people to find their own way, by highlighting the merits of those who came before us and the challenges they were able to overcome.
This is more or less what I will say to my young audience today, perhaps in other words. I will thank the students for having listened to me speak about a country, which I am proud to belong to and I feel privileged to represent.
The 150th anniversary logo
The logo of the 150th anniversary is an iconic image which reminds us of the profoundly human courage, dream and joy which characterised the events of the Risorgimento, and which takes them out of history books to transform them into emotions which are still very present.
The shape of the logo-flag is the result of a study which incorporates the suggestion of a festive atmosphere, inflated sails and the flight of a dove. The three flags represent the three jubilees of 1911, 1961 and 2011 in an ideal link among generations. The repetition of the shape builds a sense of unanimity and unity of values, while the forward arrows of the textual part contribute to connect the past, present and the future.
The author is Ambassador of Italy to Malta.