“I lost my way.” In the farewell note left by General Claudio Graziano, president of Fincantieri, there is all the desperation that drove him yesterday to take his own life with a gunshot to the head. The reference is to the death of his wife Marisa Lanucara in April 2023. While The Republic he reveals one of his last confidences which dates back to a week ago: «There would be many things to write, the world is falling apart. But now I struggle in the evening, I feel empty.” Graziano had been suffering from his wife’s illness and her death for a long time, the newspaper writes. Now the government will have to identify his successor at the top of the state company. The powers have been passed on an interim basis to Pierroberto Folgiero. In the next few days it will be discussed together with the other appointments (Cdp, Rai, Fs).
The gun and the suicide note
Graziano took his own life in the night between Sunday and Monday. He lived in a building a few steps from the Celio military hospital. A policeman from his escort found him in the morning. The gun was found near his body. The Rome prosecutor’s office, as required, has opened an investigation against unknown persons for incitement to suicide. It will be used to carry out tests and analyzes to clarify the dynamics of the event. The investigations are entrusted to the Carabinieri. Graziano was widowed and childless. The Ministry of Defense will take care of the ceremonies to pay homage to him. Born in Turin in 1953, Graziano attended the Military Academy of Modena and the Application School of Turin where he graduated. In Trieste he obtained another degree and, in Rome, a Master’s degree. Then from an Alpine infantry officer, he rose through the ranks at the “Taurinense” up to the Army General Staff.
The carreer
He ends up in Mozambique, on a United Nations peacekeeping mission, then becomes Military Attache at the Italian Embassy in Washington DC (USA) and again in war. In fact, he commands the “Multinational Kabul Brigade” in Afghanistan. In 2007 he was appointed Force Commander of the UNIFIL mission in Lebanon, as Commander of the UN Forces and Head of Mission for humanitarian aid and relief. In 2011 he was Chief of Staff of the Army, then Chief of Defense Staff; from 2018 to 2022 he is President of the EU Military Committee (European Union Military Committee). Graziano ends his career as president of Fincantieri, replacing Giampiero Massolo and Giuseppe Bono with Folgiero as CEO. Together with four other generals, he was involved in the investigation into the Teulada shooting range: a trial for one aspect, a request for dismissal for another.
Suicide
The psychologist Matteo Lancini on The print today he reflects on the cases of Graziano, the rector of the Catholic University of Milan Franco Anelli and Anthony Bourdain, an internationally renowned chef who took his own life on 8 June 2018. «No amount of social prestige can seal the loss of meaning» , explains the doctor. «Each precipitating factor is unique and different from each other but they all have one thing in common: the loss of the future, the hope in the future. Investigations into suicides and the stories of those who survive the attempt tell us that almost always before falling into the temptation of voluntary death the individual sends a message, makes a phone call, is animated by a feeble, sometimes very feeble, communicative intention, turns to someone else, to one or other human beings.” And this is because “when the world falls on you and you are deciding to abandon it, only the relationship with the other can make you change your mind”.
