Il June 29, 2009 at 23.49 at the Viareggio station a train with fourteen tanks carrying LPG derailed after an axle broke. Due to the derailment, one tank suffered a hole, from which gas escaped, followed by an explosion that killed 32 people injuring a hundred of them.
This June 29th they will have passed 15 years since the Viareggio train massacrean indelible wound for the city and for the entire nation that can only be healed when there is full justice and a concrete transport safety plan is undertaken. Thanks to the commitment of the victims’ families gathered in the Association Il Mondo che Vorrei, we managed, among many obstacles and misdirections, to bring those responsible to justice. Among these is the former CEO of RFI Mauro Moretti that for the quantification of the years of prison, referral to the Court of Appeal of Florence was envisaged.
As soon as I was elected to the Senate, I filed a motion on the withdrawal of Moretti’s knighthood signed by 70 colleagues. I wrote to the current President of the Republic so that he could directly repair what was a punch in the stomach to the victims, to the relatives in Viareggio, to the entire country and to the sense of Justice. I also addressed Moretti: “If you are a man, you renounce the knighthood”. But the powerful often lose touch with their own humanity and cling to symbols to feed their ego that does not allow them to be empathetic and identify with others.
Il December 5, 2018 in the hall of Palazzo Madama my colleagues were lined up to pay homage with reverence Giorgio Napolitanowhen it was my turn I asked the former President of the Republic to explain the awarding, a few months after the massacre, of the Cavaliere del Lavoro to Mauro Moretti. An honor that was assigned while at the same time he refused the request of the victims’ families to meet him at the Quirinale. Napolitano was very surprised. He did not expect my request for explanations. He tried, lying, to explain to me that Moretti had been attributed indirect responsibilities and then the choice did not depend on him, that he had been given a list of names. But in the end, after my insistence, he admitted that it was he who gave the go-ahead upon nomination.
I told the former President of the Republic that on June 29th I was among the very first to arrive at the station and that my son was sleeping about a hundred meters away. Manuel who was 3 months old. That night the house shook and he too could have been a victim. I told him about Marco Piagentini and of his body completely burnedof the loss of his wife and his sons Luca and Lorenzo. Luca he was 4 years old and as Marco recalled he “melted from the heat after the explosion”. I told him about the other son Lorenzo who was 2 years old and died alone in a hospital bed wrapped like a mummy. I told him about Emanuelaa sunny and lively girl, who managed to phone her mother before entering a coma Daniela Diamonds to try to reassure her.
I persisted with my story remembering those little ones white coffins placed on the lawn of the Stadio dei Pini on the day of the funeral, the anguish of those present. Napolitano for a moment dropped his mask pompous of power and I saw an old man whose eyes filled with tears. But I didn’t stop, that morning in the hemicycle of Palazzo Madama I went against my nature and was bad. I told him that he should be ashamed and ask for forgiveness in the face of so much suffering.
I don’t know if Napolitano has publicly asked for forgiveness. I don’t know. I hope that Mauro Moretti will do it sooner or later because carrying all this pain of others in life and then in the grave will never give peace.
