It was June 7, 1984 when Enrico Berlinguer died in Padua. After a heartbreaking rally, which ended with his words swallowed by a stroke, the then secretary of the Italian Communist Party spent a few days in the Giustinianeo hospital before giving up. To remember him today, right in Piazza dei Frutti, where Berlinguer held that rally in front of a young city secretary Flavio Zanonato, who would later become mayor three times and minister, there were thousands of people. And there was the secretary of the Democratic Party Elly Schlein, heiress of that piece of the left that remained. There was the mayor Sergio Giordani, Zanonato and the representatives of the Nuova Società Foundation and the Ettore Luccini Study Center, who dedicated a memorial stone to Berlinguer in that square. A memorial stone where today Giordani placed flowers together with the secretary of the Democratic Party.
The words of the protagonists
«He knew how to be authoritative and human, close to people, to those who struggle, capable of bringing the needs of the least in every word, you could feel that he was authentic – Schlein’s words, before moving on to tomorrow’s vote -. Voting is the most powerful tool we have to change things. The mistrust is understandable, but if we don’t deal with politics, politics will take care of us.” There is almost the entire Paduan left in the square. Mayor Sergio Giordani does the honors and remembers Berlinguer: «A symbol of a politics that knew how to put itself at the service and aimed at social justice». And then Zanonato himself: «We have never made a holy picture of Berlinguer, instead we look for that part of his thought that is still alive. And this is where we find inspiration: there is no true democracy without social justice, without participation. But among his strongest ideals there was also peace: today Berlinguer would be distressed by the 40 thousand deaths in Palestine and the thousand Israelis killed by Hamas.”
The students
Then it’s the turn of Emma Ruzzon, president of the university student council: «We still have a legacy of Berlinguer’s values: the sense of community, being together, believing in a possible transformation of society. Today that hope is struggling to ignite, but we must not be afraid of ideologies. Forty years ago, young people certainly had the same fears that we have, but they knew how to find strength in ideologies. Today, however, we live in an individualistic society, politics has accustomed us to scandals and corruption and it is difficult to believe it. But we want to try again, we know that Berlinguer’s left still exists, you recognize it if you meet it. There will always be those who share bread and grow roses.” The same roses that Giordani, Zanonato and Elly Schlein then placed on that memorial stone dedicated to Enrico Berlinguer.
