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Re-narrating Italy, reinventing the nation: assessing the presidency of Ciampi

2011; Routledge; Volume: 16; Issue: 5 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/1354571x.2011.622475

1469-9583

Bjørn Thomassen, Rosario Forlenza,

Political theory and Gramsci

Abstract Italian political and public debate since the ‘earthquake years’ 1992–1994 has to a very high degree focused on the country's identity, on the notion of ‘nation’ and how to interpret it, and on the country's historical past and how to link it meaningfully to the (political) present. It has been less recognized that the crisis of the party political system in the 1990s also gave a new role to play for Italian Presidents at both the institutional and symbolic levels. In particular, this article argues that a fundamental change took place in the bespeaking of the Italian nation during the presidency of Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, 1999–2006. Ciampi gave Italians a new language to speak and think with, a language that has become tied to a series of novel or reinvented memory practices. The aim of this article is to analyze this new nationalist discourse as it developed through Ciampi's seven years as President of the Italian republic. At the empirical level, the article focuses on spoken and written texts by Ciampi himself. Those texts were either read or published in connection with particularly meaningful dates (2 June or 25 April) or places (‘le fosse Ardeatine’ or Cefalonia). At the theoretical level we argue for an anthropological approach to political transition and meaning-formation. Political regimes change as societies undergo the dissolution of established power structures, affecting not only institutional forms but also affective relations and symbolic universes of people. It is in such a context that Presidential speeches as official discourse and ‘high politics’ can come to function as a symbolic surplus and have a real effect on the semantic underpinning of nation and demos. Keywords: Ciampimeaning-formationmemorynarrativenational Identitynationalismpresidencyritualsymbolism Notes On the importance of speeches dealing with the Nazi past in the West German parliament see Dubiel (Citation1999). See http://www.quirinale.it/qrnw/statico/ex-presidenti/Ciampi/dinamico/discorso.asp?id=17430 (accessed 6 October 2011). See http://www.quirinale.it/qrnw/statico/ex-presidenti/Ciampi/dinamico/discorso.asp?id=9729 (accessed 6 October 2011). See http://www.quirinale.it/qrnw/statico/ex-presidenti/Ciampi/dinamico/discorso.asp?id=12740 (accessed 6 October 2011). For more detailed data see Corbetta and Piretti (Citation2009: 100–3). The Monarchy did best in Campania with 76.5% followed by Sicily at 64.7%, Puglia at 67.3%, Calabria at 60.3%, and Sardegna at 60.9%. From 2002, many cultural manifestation and civil rituals were arranged by the local authorities giving the celebrations a more popular aspect (Martini Citation2002; Viroli Citation2002a). This attempt did of course bring Ciampi some criticism from the Northern League; but even that critique was less pronounced than one could have expected. See http://www.quirinale.it/qrnw/statico/ex-presidenti/Ciampi/dinamico/discorso.asp?id=13827 (accessed 6 October 2011). See http://www.quirinale.it/qrnw/statico/ex-presidenti/Ciampi/dinamico/comunicato.asp?id=15016 (accessed 6 October 2011). On the resistance as a ‘second Risorgimento’, see Focardi (Citation2003), Pavone (Citation1991: 169–220) and Pezzino (Citation2005). This interpretation was, for example, extremely widespread among many Istrians, who had fled Yugoslavia in the aftermath of the Second World War. Their version of the war events and the role played by the Resistance in northeast Italy had come to the fore during the 1990s (Thomassen Citation2006). The Vittoriano was closed on 12 December 1969, when two bombs burst on the monument, the same day as the Piazza Fontana terrorist act. See http://www.quirinale.it/qrnw/statico/ex-presidenti/Ciampi/dinamico/discorso.asp?id=13020 (accessed 6 October 2011). See http://www.quirinale.it/qrnw/statico/ex-presidenti/Ciampi/dinamico/discorso.asp?id=16171 (accessed 6 October 2011). See http://www.quirinale.it/qrnw/statico/ex-presidenti/Ciampi/dinamico/discorso.asp?id=22929 (accessed 6 October 2011). See http://www.quirinale.it/qrnw/statico/ex-presidenti/Ciampi/dinamico/discorso.asp?id=13159. See also the speech of 8 September 2003. Available online at: http://www.quirinale.it/qrnw/statico/ex-presidenti/Ciampi/dinamico/discorso.asp?id=22929 (accessed 6 October 2011). See http://www.quirinale.it/qrnw/statico/ex-presidenti/Ciampi/dinamico/discorso.asp?id=17430 (accessed 6 October 2011). After the armistice, the Italian soldiers of the Aqui division stationed on the island of Cephalonia in the Ionian Sea refused to surrender their arms to the Germans and fought against them for several days. After the Italians were forced to surrender (22 September 1943), the German military command ordered mass executions. This interpretation of Cephalonia as a heroic ‘first act’ of the Resistance had already been suggested by the influential journalist Mario Pirani, in a newspaper article from 15 September 1999, entitled ‘Cefalonia una strage dimenticata da tutti’ (Pirani Citation1999). Minister of Defence Carlo Scognamiglio responded in an open letter two days later, affirming Cephalonia as a constituting act of the resistance (Scognamiglio Citation1999). See http://www.quirinale.it/qrnw/statico/ex-presidenti/Ciampi/dinamico/discorso.asp?id=14351 (accessed 6 October 2011). A few days later, Ciampi reasserted his claim during an interview (Pirani Citation2001) stirring further controversy (Ciampi Citation2001; Galli della Loggia Citation2001). See also Rusconi (Citation2004). A partial recognition of the ‘boys of Salò’ had taken place already during the 1990s. A popular debate about the legacy of Fascism was sparked by the 1994 Combat Film, watched by millions of Italians (see Ventresca Citation2006). This also stirred a debate within the Italian left. In 1996, Luciano Violante famously said that one needed to understand the reasons why many young Italians chose to fight for the Salò Republic, and to respect the sacrifice they had made even if their cause remained wrong. These debates had prepared the terrain for Ciampi. See http://www.quirinale.it/qrnw/statico/ex-presidenti/Ciampi/dinamico/discorso.asp?id=15996 (accessed 6 October 2011). Ciampi's speech aroused the harsh reaction of the writer Antonio Tabucchi (Citation2001). Partisan Rosario Bentivegna (Citation2001) and the national secretary of the Democrats of the Left (DS) Pietro Fassino (Citation2001) welcomed Ciampi's words. See http://www.quirinale.it/qrnw/statico/ex-presidenti/Ciampi/dinamico/discorso.asp?id=29045 (accessed 6 October 2011). This new national feast was a continuation of the ‘Giornata della bandiera’, which had been celebrated from 1997 to 2002. See http://www.quirinale.it/qrnw/statico/ex-presidenti/Ciampi/dinamico/discorso.asp?id=21196 (accessed 6 October 2011). See http://www.quirinale.it/qrnw/statico/ex-presidenti/Ciampi/dinamico/discorso.asp?id=16171 (accessed 6 October 2011). See http://www.quirinale.it/qrnw/statico/ex-presidenti/Ciampi/dinamico/discorso.asp?id=17430 (accessed 6 October 2011). The year before, Ciampi had openly declared his annoyance when Muti refused to open the opera season at La Scala with the national anthem (Ajello Citation1999). See the Manneim Eurobarometer Trend File 1970–2002 and the Eurobarometer surveys 2002–2007 downloaded from Gesis (Leibiniz Institute for Social Sciences) ZACAT (http://zacat.gesis.org/webview/index.jsp). For the World Values Survey 2005, see http://www.wvsevsdb.com/wvs/WVSAnalizeQuestion.jsp (accessed 6 October 2011); see also Cartocci (Citation2002), Cartocci and Piscitelli (2003), Haller (Citation2003), Sciolla (Citation2003, Citation2010) and Segatti (Citation2004). See http://www.compubblica.it/binary_files/indagini/ricerca_cattaneo.5.pdf (accessed 6 October 2011), pp. 36, 39–41. Measuring ‘i fattori dell'orgoglio’, the same survey shows this ranking: ‘la bellezza del nostro territorio’ (83 per cent), ‘il nostro patriominio artistico e culturale’ (80.4 per cent), ‘la cucina’ (78.2 per cent), ‘ascoltare l'inno italiano’ (63.9 per cent), ‘vedere sventolare la bandiera italiana’ (62.9 per cent); ‘la moda e lo stile’ (51.7 per cent), ‘i valori civile del passato: la Resisitenza, il Risorgimento’ (50 per cent), ‘il livello dello sport e i campioni’ (44.5 per cent), ‘la nostra Costituzione’ (43.1 per cent), ‘la nostra economia e i nostri imprenditori’ (14.3 per cent) (XII Rapporto gli Italiani e lo Stato, 11 December 2009. Available online at: http://www.demos.it/a00373.php (accessed 6 October 2011).