Tomorrow at 5pm, to the Sanremo Civic Museum in Piazza Nota, Renato Bergonzi presents his new book, published by Antea di Angelo Giudici, entitled: ‘The reputation. From the policeman in his underwear to the Sanremo Festival – Journey between vices and virtues of Public Administration’. Dialogue with the author, Marco Corradi. Free admission.
In October 2015, a raid by the financial police led to the arrest of 43 employees of the Municipality of Sanremo, and the issuing of 75 notices of conclusion of investigations for the same number of employees. The operation called Stakhanov, i.e. the time card sly ones, had its synthesis in the image of a policeman punching the time card in his underwear. This image went around the world and perhaps stigmatized the work of public employees forever.
From that event, during which Bergonzi held the position of Personnel Manager, a reflection on public work began. The question that the author wants to answer in this text can be summarized as follows: It is possible to describe the working day of a public employee through a simple narrative structure within everyone’s reach, without falling into the stereotypes that have always characterized him, well represented from the characters of the filmography among which the most famous is Fantozzi?
Renato Bergonzi’s book is the story of a personal experience of someone who was an employee of the Public Administration for 30 years. A story that frankly exposes the many flaws that exist within the organization, but that distances itself from the most widespread belief that sees the public employee as a privileged and unfaithful worker, little inclined towards professional commitment.
Through the description of many episodes of working life experienced in the municipalities of Sanremo and Ventimiglia, Bergonzi shows us a varied reality where the most varied characters appear. From the politician who tries to test the Manager’s willingness to loosen the rules of a regulation, to the desperate mother whose minor son has been temporarily taken away from her. The author’s career was interrupted after the Stakhanov operation, with his resignation in a radical gesture. The cause of this choice is explained by the author in an articulated way and refers to the desire to safeguard one’s reputation.
It is interesting to read some pages of the book dedicated to the story of the policeman in his underwear, who will be fired by the Municipality of Sanremo (according to Bergonzi with a procedure that was perhaps too hasty) but who will be acquitted in both levels of criminal proceedings and for which the labor judge has imposed his reinstatement on the Municipality itself.
