The Meloni government has gone overboard with national days (and it is not the only one). Mattarella’s rebuke

The President of the Republic does not always show irritation or annoyance. Usually, when he is unable to hide these feelings, he does not shout or exclaim them; at most, he lets them slip through. Today, however, upon finding yet another example of the most vivid creativity of those who make our laws on his desk, the Head of State must have raised an eyebrow to such an extent that he asked for pen and paper and wrote a letter to Parliament: “I was presented today with […[ the law […] establishing a national day for paper recycling: as there were no obvious grounds for unconstitutionality, I proceeded to promulgate it, just as I did a few days ago with the law establishing the national day of wonder. I wish, however, to point out that the number of laws establishing days to highlight values, events, intentions, emotions or aspects of life is rising at a dizzying rate’. In this letter sent to the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, Lorenzo Fontana, Mattarella noted that ‘over the last three parliamentary terms, 36 such laws have been passed, 20 of them during this parliamentary term. In addition to national holidays, the number of such days now stands at 51’. Therefore, given that ‘most of them involve the promotion [...] in schools [...] of educational or awareness-raising activities on the subject [...] it is becoming increasingly difficult, indeed implausible, to expect schools to fulfil all the tasks entrusted to them [...]. I therefore feel the need to urge that the trend towards increasing the number of such days be kept within reasonable limits.” 

The straw that broke the camel’s back was the paper recycling day. However, looking at the list on the Prime Minister’s Office website, one might surmise that the irritation expressed today by the President of the Republic did not first arise at the Quirinale this morning. It is reasonable to suspect, in fact, that even when the National Day of Historical Costumes (April 2025) was established, Mattarella signed the decree with a touch of irritation. The same applies to the National Day for Veterinary Prevention (also April 2025), the National Day for the Catering Industry (May 2026) and the National Day for Agriculture (January 2024). The same likely holds true for the one established in May 2024, which suggests that on some occasions those who establish these commemorative days do not make full use of their imagination: National Respect Day. Respect for what? For whom? It doesn’t matter. The text refers to combating cyberbullying. A day against cyberbullying could certainly have been established, but respect is a broader concept and therefore encompasses everything. It is not clear, however – if one is to be pedantic – what purpose it served, a year later, to also establish a day against body-shaming, which is undoubtedly a lack of respect towards its victims.  Since Mattarella has been at the Quirinale – and as he recalled with a touch of irritation this morning – he has had to sign off on the establishment of numerous national days. It would be interesting to know which one first made him ask himself: ‘But was there really a need for that?’. Was it perhaps the national day for gifts (Gift Day, established by Renzi in July 2015), or the one for the performing arts (October 2021)? Perhaps the one for reading (February 2020)? 

In short, it seems that our Parliament has a penchant for establishing national days that, in its eagerness, is similar to that shown by Adolfo Urso, Minister for Enterprise and Made in Italy, when it came to issuing postage stamps. Scrolling through the list, one almost senses his influence in one of these national days, established in April 2024 by the Meloni government: the one for ‘Made in Italy’ (if one were to be created shortly for ‘Businesses’ as well, there would be no further doubt). On that date too, as Mattarella pointed out, schools will have to organise activities with pupils on the theme of ‘Made in Italy’. So, if around Easter you see your children heading for the school bus one morning carrying one of the wicker chairs from your kitchen, bear in mind that the school may well have asked them to do so to mark this important occasion.