PISTOIA. It was a different and certainly formative morning that the Pacini students experienced in the company of Piero Grasso, former president of the Senate, as well as a member of the anti-mafia pool alongside Falcone and Borsellino. Grasso was also a side judge at the maxi trial against Cosa Nostra in the bunker courtroom set up in Palermo inside the Ucciardone prison, now named after the two judges barbarically killed by the mafia within 57 days of each other in 1992 .
Pietro Grasso, even if no longer in actual service, presents himself as a prestigious promoter of legality and memory. He is engaged in a sort of tour of Italy within high schools thanks to the support of the Conad Ets Foundation. “It’s his third life,” the director of the Maria Cristina Alfieri Foundation said with an effective image.
In addition to the great attention and curiosity of the students, what stood out were the glimpses of humanity that could be read in the eyes and smile of Grasso himself, in the emotion of the principal of the institute Marzia Andreoni and in the pride of the CEO of the Conad Ets Foundation Adam Ascarihimself, in the past, a student of Pacini.
Upon his arrival, Grasso did not refuse to answer questions from those present: «Falcone and Borsellino were normal people to imitate. I would like to convey this to young people so that they can build a better future.”
Shortly afterwards the former magistrate (for 43 years) explained to the children (many present in the assembly hall, the others connected in the classes via videoconference) that «without relying on those close to it, the mafia could not exist. This alone would be enough to explain to young people the importance of legality.” Grasso said he hoped for «a moral revolt of the new generations in the name of the law. We need to talk to young people, but also listen to them. Their enthusiasm gives me a lot of positive energy. The mafia has changed and today it is fought with different tools. It hides behind new technologies. And it branches out where there is more wealth, like Tuscany itself.”
The former president of the Senate was truly engaging, even for the students. He started from the sad story of thirteen-year-old Giuseppe Letizia, killed in a hospital in Corleone (where the head doctor was a mafioso) because he had seen too much.
Three hours of stories in a mix between the man on the front line against the mafia and the father of the family: «When I was appointed judge at the side of the maxi trial I asked my wife whether to accept a very prestigious but equally dangerous position. She encouraged me to continue, even though she was aware that from that day on our lives would change for the worse.”
Then came the questions from the kids that Grasso wanted close to him, creating considerable empathy. He spoke to them about his fears: «During the trial the mafia could kill me, as it could do with the other magistrates and even with the popular judges, so there was a replacement figure for each of us if we were missing during the trial ». Grasso tells the students that for the success of the maxi trial there was also the support of parliament, which legislated eliminating the legal loophole that imposed the obligation to read the entire 400 thousand papers present in the folders. At the end of the speeches Grasso performed a real coup de théâtre, telling about a gift from Falcone, namely a lighter: «he had left it in my custody, but in the meantime he was killed. Since then I have always carried it with me”. He takes it out of his pocket and turns it on. Almost two minutes of applause. The flame of legality had also taken shape visually. It is not for nothing that Piero Grasso’s foundation is called: Scintille di Futuro.
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