By Marina Poci for Il7 Magazine
Just over eighty years ago. it was the capital of Italy for a few months, when, in the aftermath of the Armistice, King Vittorio Emanuele III of Savoy (with an act that certainly cannot be defined as heroic) literally abandoned Rome to transfer the seat of the Kingdom and Government there. Next June 13th will be the capital of the world for a few hours: the decision has been made official by the Meloni executive that the inaugural dinner of the G7 of Savelletri will be held in the Castello Svevo in Brindisi, headquarters of the Command of the San Marco Brigade of the Navy (Fasano), offered by the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella to the heads of state and government who will participate in the summit of the seven richest countries in the world.
Along the corridors that from 10 September 1943 to 10 February 1944 saw the unraveling of the excited – and in some ways confused – final events of a Kingdom that was facing the most dramatic moment in its history, they will walk, in addition to the Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Mattarella himself, Presidents Joe Biden for the United States of America and Emmanuel Macron for France, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Prime Ministers Justin Trudeau for Canada, Rishi Sunak for the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and Fumio Kishida for Japan, as well as the highest officials of the European Union (the Prime Minister Charles Michel and the President of the Commission Ursula von der Leyen).
Having defeated the competition from Bari (which perhaps, despite the long inspection by the American delegation, was never really in the game) and Barletta (whose Swabian-Angevin manor seemed to have more possibilities, yet in the end it was deemed unsuitable for reasons of safety related mainly to travel), the Brindisi Castle appeared to be the most appropriate choice, although in the days preceding the communication of the news no indiscretion was leaked regarding any technical-organisational meetings held on site to evaluate its suitability for the purpose (in terms security and logistics).
Born on a French initiative in 1975, with the noble aim of encouraging comparison between the most developed nations, whose political, economic, industrial and military weight is considered of central importance on a global scale, the intergovernmental forum composed of the seven major economically advanced states of the planet has become, over the years, an event which, if well structured and sponsored, is capable of determining an exceptional impact on the image of the host territories.
The gala dinner, in particular, the first impact of world leaders with the organizational reality of the country of presidency, represents an indispensable showcase in which the authority of the expected personalities and the formal rigor of the technical tables and thematic meetings are tempered with the glamor and local traditions.
Who does not remember the very refined evening offered by the President of the Republic Oscar Luigi Scalfaro in the Throne Room of the Royal Palace of Caserta on the occasion of the Neapolitan G7 in 1994, when an astonished Hillary Rodham Clinton, at the sight of the sparkling fountain of Diana and Actaeon, superbly illuminated, he exclaimed “Oh, wonderful!” (translation: “wonderful”)?
Maybe this is why social media went wild when the castle of Brindisi was announced as the chosen venue: “Will you let him taste the raw seafood?”, someone asks, while someone else echoes him with “Let him dance the pizzica” and the die-hards of road safety do not miss an opportunity to invoke “ggiustati li stradi armenu”.
A decision that is still too recent to be able to venture hypotheses on the organization of the evening but, based on previous experiences, it is reasonable to think that a dinner that highlights the typical products of the area, naturally entrusted to a renowned chef, will be preceded or followed by a moment of entertainment , in all likelihood musical, of not too long duration (considering that some of the leaders will be forced to travel long distances to get to Brindisi and that the following day the summit will enter the heart of its activities with the first institutional events scheduled).
A program which, although not yet defined in detail, will have to take into account the latest war emergencies deriving from the attack on Israel by Iran and will have to comply with the priorities put on the agenda by the Meloni Government: “the defense of the international system based on force of law”; “the relationship with developing nations and emerging economies” with the construction of a “partnership model beneficial to all, far from paternalistic or predatory logic”; “migration issues”; “the climate-energy nexus and food security”; “artificial intelligence”.
The G7, we read on the official website of the summit, “is united by common values and principles and plays an irreplaceable role in the defense of freedom and democracy and in the management of global challenges”: a concept that goes along with what has been said by historians about what happened in Brindisi in the short period of time in which it remained the capital of the Kingdom. It was in the Puglia capital of Brindisi that the Resistance was reorganized and the National Liberation Committee was strengthened at the Bari Congress. And it was in the Puglia capital of Brindisi that trade unions and parties, until then suffocated by the grip of the regime, became active again and that the free press began to exercise again that function of watchdog of power that had been taken away from it for decades (“I transferred to this free part of peninsular Italy, in the hope of avoiding more serious offenses in Rome”, said the king in a proclamation on Radio Bari).
“Forge of democracy”, Brindisi was defined, since it was precisely in the rooms of the Castello Svevo, where part of the Allied Command also settled, that General Badoglio read Italy’s declaration of war on Germany, the first act of that break with the Mussolini’s tyranny which would be fully realized in the XII transitional and final provision of the Constitutional Charter of ’46, which prohibits the reorganisation, “in any form” (…), of the dissolved fascist party.
That same castle which for exactly five months was the residence of the Savoy family and the embryo of the free Italy which would soon emerge from the rubble of the dictatorship, will mark the beginning of the Italian presidency of the G7 summit in one of the most complicated moments in world politics .
There cannot be greater pride for a territory that aspires to return to being the protagonist of history, as in that distant 10th September 1943, when, more or less consciously and perhaps even regardless of the initial will of all those who ultimately participated, in Brindisi the new story of nascent Italy began to be written.
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