Heirs of a story

2 June 1946. Italy has recently emerged from a brutal conflict, which in the years between 1943 and 1945 had turned into a civil war: Germans against allies, but above all fascists against anti-fascists. The war has left devastation and desolation; it is necessary to rebuild, mend relationships, recompose conflicts much deeper than some (albeit brutal) shooting; it is necessary to rediscover national unity and ensure that the experience of dictatorship and war is never repeated. In this climate, all Italians (and for the first time also women) are called to vote in a referendum on the form of government: monarchy or republic.

That June 2, 1946 (and also the following morning) almost 25 million people went to the polls. The wait is long, but - for various institutional reasons - the definitive results arrive about ten days later : the republic won with a percentage of about 55%.
2 June 2021. 75 years have passed since that day that changed the history of our country and if we look back, the Italian Republic has gone through many and varied phases: terrorism, violence, scandals, corruption, the decline of the old parties and formation of new groups. There are still people who keep the historical memory of all these facts and of how much political and social life has changed considerably in these decades. But above all there are the men and women of today and tomorrow: it is us, who do not come out of a war but try to face a pandemic and many subtle conflicts that mark our society. After 75 years I don't think we are more united than then…

I believe that it is necessary to reconstruct many aspects (from school to education, from culture to trust in institutions and many others), but that ultimately the objective can be summarized in this: to act not as islands of facing the great sea of ​​the world but as heirs of a past to look to to take the good and build the future. This is the hope: to feel part of the same story.


Roberto Lerda
NP June / July 2021