By Paolo Pantani
For several years now, I have been devoted to current affairs such as building partnerships, fielding win-win solutions in the strategic Mediterranean arena, and attending meetings in parliamentary chambers to alleviate the North-South divide and showcase achievements.
The political situation in the meantime has evolved toward the gloomy prospect of differentiated autonomy for the North Central regions, and it would be a real catastrophe, unfortunately permanent for the South of our country.
It has already happened for the productive decay of almost the entire industrial fabric of our regions, such as Ansaldo,Italtubi of Torre Annunziata, Italsider of Bagnoli, Dalmine, Alfa Sud, Fiat of Termini Imerese, Italtrafo, Mecfond, ATI, Whirpool, not to mention the eternal unfinished projects, such as the completion of the Naples Directional Center, the Naples metro network, the Grazzanise International Airport, the construction of the Messina Bridge, the failure of the aviation hub, despite the favorable climate and history of the South, etc., etc.
I’ve been thinking a lot, it’s a short time ago a video by Corrado Augiaspraising the oblivion of the Southern Question, finally someone who says something and what does he say? Since it is unsolvable, let’s forget it, let’s not talk about it anymore, “scurdammece ‘o passato.” And what do we do? Augias says, let’s look to the future, but what future is reserved for us? No answer is given. It was a very meaningful “lectio magistralis.”
Leòn Gambetta, a French statesman,of Genoese father, also said almost the same thing. “always think about it, never talk about it.” He used to say this phrase following the catastrophic defeat, at Sedan, of the French army in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. A defeat that allowed us the taking of Rome by the bersaglieri.
By this aphorism, Gambetta meant that thinking about revenge should not be a constant endeavor of every Frenchman but should be inserted deep into their hearts, to make it settle better, so that it could then be drawn out at the right time, which, for France, would come on November 11, 1918, with the victory over the Germanic empire and the latter’s unraveling.
The “never talk about it” is equally important, because in this way one is able to give the enemy the sense that certain unbelievable offenses have been forgotten or at any rate, somehow attenuated in the collective memory, so that one can induce the enemy to lower his defenses and make him more vulnerable. The “always thinking about it” is a source of continuous fresh insights and suggestions.
So we need to be careful, measured, calm and determined. The balance of power is favorable and everything that can be done, such as collecting signatures to defend the constitution, will be done.
One thing cannot be done, negotiating an unconditional surrender. In the meantime, while waiting for our redemption, let us continue to promote macroregional and Mediterranean strategies.
