Letters
letters to the editor •
Putin’s war and miscarriages of justice: reminders for the forgetful
Who wrote to the editor, Claudio Cerasa
8 AUG 26
Translated by AI
Photo: ANSA
To the Editor – Without wishing to sound sycophantic, I would like to congratulate your newspaper and Carmelo Caruso on the interview (Il Foglio, 7 August) with Massimo D’Alema following the death of Francesco Guccini. The interview is the most sincere I have read in memory of the singer-songwriter from Emilia; indeed, whilst acknowledging his artistic talents, D’Alema emphasises that Guccini had little to do with the communists and their playlist. There is also another, more political aspect that Caruso highlights admirably, namely D’Alema’s silences and pauses on the issues of today’s politics. Ah, how we could do with such thoughtful silences from those who once were and will never be again. All the best with your work.
Valerio Gironi
“I’ve always been pro-Ukrainian. Because Putin invaded a sovereign country with virtually no declaration of war. There were Russian forces on the border; intelligence reports said: ‘Look, they’re about to invade.’ Many Italians, including journalists, said: ‘No, no.’ Putin marched in. And so we had to help Ukraine defend itself. There are various kinds of pacifists. There are the ‘Sunday pacifists’. Then there are those who have remained pro-Soviet. I even have friends who hold this view. If we don’t send weapons to Ukraine, we’re throwing in the towel. Diplomacy requires two parties. And I believe that neither side wants to sit down at the negotiating table. Putin, in particular, wouldn’t dream of sitting down at the negotiating table for even a second. The result has been that Finland and Sweden, which had no intention of joining NATO, have applied for NATO membership. And having Putin on your border can’t be easy. And so: ‘Slava Ukraïni!’” (Francesco Guccini, “Propaganda Live”, 16 September 2022).
To the Editor – Dear Mr Cerasa, I wish to claim, thanks to the courtesy of Il Foglio, credit for first proposing the establishment of a Day of Remembrance for the victims of miscarriages of justice, through Chamber of Deputies Bill 4392 of 30 May 2011, of which I was the lead signatory alongside other colleagues. The commemoration of this Day was to have taken place on 18 May each year. “The choice of 18 May,” the report stated, “is determined by the date of Enzo Tortora’s death, as the case of the well-known television presenter is, certainly in terms of media coverage and public perception, one of the most sensational and glaring cases of judicial error.”
Giuliano Cazzola
I recommend a brilliant piece by Giovanni Caiazza in Monday’s edition of Il Foglio. A figure to remember, for those with short memories: in 2025, the state paid out €28,677,663.65 in compensation for wrongful imprisonment, with an average payout of €44,255 per order: that amounts to around 648 compensation awards that year – almost two a day. Indifference is everything; I’ll leave the rest to you to work out.
To the Editor – According to Eurostat data updated to 2024, Italian public expenditure amounts to 50.4 per cent of GDP, compared with an EU average of 49.1 per cent. Social protection, which includes pensions, benefits and welfare, accounts for 21.3 per cent of GDP, more than a third of total public expenditure. This is followed by general services (7.7 per cent), which cover the running of the administrative apparatus and interest on the debt. Next come healthcare (6.6 per cent) and economic affairs (5.1 per cent), i.e. spending on infrastructure and business support. Public order, defence, culture, the environment and housing, on the other hand, each account for less than two percentage points, and together do not reach six percentage points. The interest we pay on public debt (around 135 per cent of GDP) costs as much as the entire education sector (4 per cent of GDP). Expenditure on families and children stands at 1.5 per cent of GDP, compared with the European average of 2 per cent. In Italy, the fertility rate has fallen to less than 1.2 children per woman, an all-time low. Spending on young people – from family policies to universities – remains among the lowest in Europe, whilst the Italian welfare system focuses primarily on the elderly, and the risk of poverty affects young people and families with children in particular. I shall stop here for reasons of space. But the figures cited already seem to me to provide a sound basis for assessing the credibility of the programmes – or, rather, the election pledges (in terms of costs and funding) – that the political parties will present in the coming months.
Michele Magno