Letters
Letters to the editor •
Having a bit of a centre within coalitions, like a lifeboat
Who wrote to the editor-in-chief, Claudio Cerasa
24 OCT 26
Translated by AI
Photo: ANSA
To the Editor – How many times have we done this in the car? You arrive at the toll booth, the barrier lifts and you’re on the other side. A road, a destination. These days, toll booths have become something else: places of debate, of confrontation, of shouting and of satisfaction. People were crossing on foot, under the barrier. You weren’t in the Caribbean: you were at the Caianello toll booth. There you see strained faces, hands worn down by the kilometres, and you realise the battle is already lost. These men sleep far from home, endure sleepless nights, know the lay-bys. You go into negotiations at a disadvantage: you can go home; they’re used to being away from home for days on end. The journey is in their very being. To understand this Italy queuing up, you have to take off your tie, roll up your sleeves, sit on an overpass and listen. It’s an Italy without ideologies, which no longer sees a future. Every kilometre represents an additional expense, a project that must be postponed. I have spent many nights with them, listening without imposing my own views. I have witnessed extraordinary acts of kindness: within minutes they cleared the toll booth to allow an ambulance with its sirens blaring to pass through. We have not understood who these ghosts are who have come to disrupt our daily lives of well-stocked shelves. How many politicians have turned up at the roadblocks? How many have confined themselves to social media posts, as if online life could replace real life? Today, those ‘ghosts’ have a face, a name, and demands that cannot be dismissed. They have shown that without them, the country is struggling. Let us set up a permanent round table between transport companies and independent hauliers. Let us offer a supportive state, not one that persecutes them with the jaws of the taxman. The high cost of diesel hits them hardest of all. We need fairer contracts with the large retail chains: all it takes is a worn-out pallet for the buyer to send it back. But that journey has already been made; that work has come at a cost. The stench of goods that have gone off because of the blockades speaks of an Italy incapable of communicating with itself. Let us not only call on lorry drivers when they block the toll booths. Let us keep them at the negotiating table, but let us ask them to lift the blockades. Incentives, rather than being directed at diesel, could be channelled towards tolls: a subsidised Telepass to ease the cost of journeys. And then there are pensions: nights spent behind the wheel take their toll. Recognition of the strenuous nature of this work must be part of the discussion. From Caianello, a few kilometres from Teano, where Garibaldi met Victor Emmanuel II, the two Italies can start talking to one another again. The toll booths must reopen. The dialogue must remain open.
Fulvio Martusciello, MEP for Forza Italia
To the Editor – Dear Cerasa, my disappointment is equal to that expressed by the Hon. Giulia Pastorella, vice-president of Azione, in the courageous interview she gave yesterday to Il Foglio. I wasn’t expecting miracles, but I had hoped that this would be the right moment for the emergence of a robust liberal-democratic centre, one that is radically reformist and pro-European. For a moment, it seemed as though it might finally take shape, and that its leaders were willing to prioritise building a shared home over their own personal ambitions. It is therefore difficult not to feel a sense of bitterness in the face of yet another failure, a disheartening spectacle that repeats itself wearily, as in old suburban theatres. It is also difficult not to watch with dismay the proliferation of so-called ‘centrist’ splinter parties of dubious political substance, in some cases concocted in the laboratory of some sorcerer’s apprentice, seeking a place in the sun within one of the two coalitions vying for control of the country. Consequently, the disillusionment felt by those who had believed in the project of a new political force, independent of both the centre-right and the centre-left, runs very deep. For the writer, as for many others, it did not matter who was at the controls, but that the train reached its destination. Of course, one must not confuse disillusionment with giving up. One can stop believing in those who have lost our trust without ceasing to believe in the reasons that had led us to support them in the first place. One can acknowledge that a project, as conceived and carried out, has failed to deliver on its promises without concluding that those promises were wrong. For this reason, as far as I am concerned and despite my advanced age, I prefer to wait for another election, when perhaps the stars will be more favourably aligned.
Michele Magno
Understandable despondency. But do consider another aspect as well, dear Magno. It is true that the centre – within coalitions and between them – is not faring particularly well. This is partly due to the quarrelsome nature of certain key figures in the story. It is also partly due to the dispersal of energy. But perhaps it also depends, to some extent, on another factor: in a country stubbornly divided along bipolar lines, having a bit of the centre everywhere – even within the less centrist coalitions – can offer a glimmer of optimism for the near future, in which whichever centre comes to power will become a lifeboat even for those who did not vote for it.