Reggio Emilia «Dear President, your statements on the occasion of April 25th have caused us anger, shame and indignation. For us, your behavior is incompatible with the role of President of the Bar Association of Reggio Emilia, city of the Tricolore and Gold Medal of the Resistance”.
It’s ua real letter of no confidence the one that 47 lawyers from Reggio Emilia sent to Enrico Della Capanna, president of the Order, who on the eve of Liberation Day had written on Facebook: “We freed ourselves from fascism in 1945, but in 2024 we have not yet freed ourselves from anti-fascism.” All this in comment on the statements of my colleague, candidate for mayor supported by the centre-right, Giovanni Tarquini. Which then in the late afternoon of Wednesday he had thrown water on the fire with a statement (“there is something to overcome in terms of litigation on fronts that are historically opposed”).
«If it is true that all ideas must be respected – continues the lawyers’ letter addressed to Della Capanna – this cannot be true for fascism which is the denial of freedom of ideas. If today you can freely say what you believe, it is because the women and men who preceded us conquered this freedom for us, often paying with their lives. We felt anger because you want to erase the founding history of our Republic. We felt ashamed because you are, like us, a lawyer who must know and respect the laws, first and foremost the Constitution which is entirely anti-fascist and which, among many rights and duties, places a single prohibition: the return to fascism. We felt indignant because in your taking sides you did not divest yourself of the institutional role of President of the Bar Association, abusing the visibility that comes with it. And it’s not even the first time.”
These the names of the 47 lawyers who, to date, have signed the letter: Giovanna Fava, Etelina Carri, Annalisa Ferrari, Sarha Mineo, Gloria Bigi, Marco Scarpati, Nicola Tria, Alberto Neri, Nicola Gualdi, Sara Simonazzi, Erika Bertazzoni, Alessandra Bonini, Federica Riccò, Agnese Maggio, Fabio Martinelli, Cristina Marconi, Angelo Russo, Maura Simonazzi, Stefano Giovannini, Luca Nasciuti, Erika Dallaglio, Cecilia Soliani, Sibilla Lipari, Andrea Consolini, Massimo Ferrari, Serena Barbato, Francesca Secchi, Alessandra Davoli, Paola Prati, Nicola Nardomarino, Alessandra Scaglioni, Amedeo Rivi, Elisabetta Strumia, Luca Lodesani, Pierpaola Belpoliti, Valeria Miari, Fabiana Grazioli, Leonardo Teggi, Celestina Tinelli, Paola Menozzi, Alessandro Occhinegro, Daniele Paterlini, Valentina Rocchetti, Annalisa Micheli, Marta Rovacchi, Lorenzo Buffagni, Claudio Bigi .
The first to disagree, via social media, was Marco Scarpati: «The Bar Association… in what capacity does its president drag all of us members into something that has never been discussed and is highly questionable? And what should we proudly anti-fascist lawyers do? Change place of registration? Fascism, unfortunately, is not dead and I hope that anti-fascism lives forever.” Yesterday morning Scarpati added: «Lots of Reggio in the streets for the anti-fascist April 25th. And many lawyers reiterate that anti-fascism is an absolute value.” The lawyer Giovanna Fava is harsher: «I don’t agree with anything of what Della Capanna said. I’m ashamed for him. I no longer feel represented by him.” «I hope Della Capanna spoke in a personal capacity, I don’t think he represents the entire category of Reggio lawyers», says Cecilia Barilli, candidate of the Democratic Party. «I would say that April 25th is and remains a fundamental moment in the history of our country. It’s not just in the past. Anti-fascism is a founding value of the Constitution born from the Resistance. The hope is that this date will increasingly be a moment of sharing and recognition by everyone of what we have become, also thanks to the sacrifice and resistance of many men and women, especially in this area. An inclusive feeling compared to which the current controversies really make no sense.”
She states that she is humanly fond of Della Capanna (“I did my first year of internship in his law firm”) the lawyer Paola Soragni, the only candidate for mayor woman with the Reggio Emilia Movement civic list. «There are limits, that sentence is not good. It is clear that Della Capanna gives his political support to Tarquini. However, she is not correct in her position; at least the president of the Order should have clarified that it was her personal opinion. She is an institutional figure and must remain so, maintaining impartiality.”
The lawyer’s position is more nuanced Alessandro Nizzoli. «Since it is not part of the Bar Association’s duties, even more detailed ones, to deal with politics, I can only believe that Della Capanna spoke in a completely personal capacity. More than anything, my colleague was careless in not clarifying this aspect. Let’s be clear: it is not an endorsement of his thoughts, I can only consider it an intervention of a personal nature as it is extraneous to any function of the Order.”
The lawyer Liborio Cataliotti is categorical, who defines himself as «not right-wing, center liberal», also questioned on the subject by his own mother: «We’re not joking. For me, April 25th is Liberation Day: it is a historical celebration that is everyone’s heritage, there is not even the problem of questioning it, it certainly should not be sanctified but it is an opportunity to remember and fix historical memory. April 25th is just celebrated; then from the next day you can discuss anything. Talking about anything else on this date, even related topics such as anti-fascism, means diminishing its significance. I don’t think it’s right. I’m sorry not to be aligned with Tarquini and Della Capanna but that’s how I see it. I believe that any Reggio Emilia (or Italian) person thinks this way.”
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