On March 17th, 2011, Italy celebrated the 150th anniversary of · 3 On March 17th, 2011, Italy celebrated the 150th anniversary of its unification. As young people, we are convinced

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On March 17th, 2011, Italy celebrated the 150th anniversary of

its unification. As young people, we are convinced that this date

must be important not just for the past of Italy, but also for its

future. By interviewing authoritative members of civil society,

exponents of the world of politics and academia, we have

attempted to deal with the cross-cutting issues that the country

must address in the long run.

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Index

A NATION MADE BY YOUTH 5

INTERVIEWING ITALY

CESARE MARIA RAGAGLINI

(Permanent Representative of Italy to the UN) 11

GIUSEPPE BERTA

(Professor of History, Bocconi University) 14

RADWAN KHAWATMI

(Immigrant rights advocate) 17

RICCARDO MOLINARI

(Vice-president of Regional Council, Piemonte) 20

GIOVANNI ORSINA

(Professor of Politics, LUISS University) 22

HEROES LOOKING FOR A JOB 25

THE CREW 29

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“F ine, I’ll do as you wish. But be sure that sooner or later, that guy will screw us all”. The color of the earthy Piedmontese

dialect cannot be rendered to its full extent in an English

translation, but this is more or less what the first King of unified Italy, Victor

Emmanuel II, replied to the repeated requests of his court to appoint Camillo

di Cavour as the new Prime Minister of his small Kingdom of Sardinia.

This sentence alone is sufficient to tell another side of a story that

has too often been represented with excessive rhetorical guise. The Count of

Cavour, chubby, bespectacled, devoted uniquely to the holy cause of his Fa-

therland’s unification. Mazzini, austere, bearded, immersed in his own

thoughts. Garibaldi, constantly frowning under his red beret; and last of all

the “Gentle King”, a saintly figure sitting at the center of a pantheon of char-

acters that seem to resemble demi-gods, rather than normal human beings.

The truth underneath the shining armors and the flurry of pompous

rhetoric is, however, definitely more exciting. The story of the Italian unifica-

tion is epic and beguiling because it has been molded by individuals who

were, in their virtues and flaws, intrinsically human. They were young,

beardless and impulsive. They were fighting for their ideals by the time they

were in their mid-twenties.

It is in the minds of young men, as a matter of fact, that one can

trace the origins of our nation. Young men, such as the 22 year-old Giuseppe

Mazzini. In 1827, together with a limping, bankrupt marques called Raimon-

do Doria (who was not, one might say, particularly handsome, either), he

ventured into the dark alleys of Genoa to make his first contact with the Car-

boneria, the infamous masonic lodge. The ritual of admission, as usual, was

to take place in a nearby forest. Oaths of blood in the name of the lodge’s

patron saint, Saint Theobald, symbolic axe-wielding, and veiled threats were

A Nation Made by Youth By Carlo Starace

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part of the deal. This comical bunch of a ragtag army was thus the beginning

of young Mazzini’s epic adventure. He fainted at the slightest sight of blood,

but he was a keen observer and grasped very quickly that the organization

to which he was then part of, with all its limits and ridiculous secrecy, would

not go very far.

However, he never revealed the whereabouts of the Carboneria. Not

even when, for his own fault, he was captured by the police and sent to jail.

It was right at that moment that he decided to abandon his sloppy co-

revolutionaries, who were by then being influenced by the charismatic figure

of Filippo Buonarroti, a long-time rabble-rouser. The latter had previously

participated to the French Revolution, and was a devoted follower of Robes-

pierre’s political vision - Jacobin “red terror”, indiscriminate head chopping

and all the rest. He had remained stuck in 1794, the year when his idol had

fallen into pitfalls of his own making and was himself beheaded in the public

square. Deeply influenced by the Frenchman’s ghost, Buonarroti sought the

unification of Italy as a means to reach Rousseau’s ideal of an “egalitarian

democracy”. To achieve this, the so-called “ignorant masses” -unbeknownst

to them - had to be driven by a self-selected squadron of “enlightened re-

formers”

This last bit was exactly what Mazzini despised of the Carboneria.

The absolute secrecy of the organization, its complex, ridiculous rites, its

dark aura of mysticism and its mob-like alternation of hints and threats.

He founded the “Giovine Italia” – “Youthful Italy” – while in exile in

Marseille. He was barely 25 years old. From the Southern shores of France,

Mazzini led his own revolutionary organization. Together with a group of

friends, he feverishly set off to printing political pamphlets on any kind of

paper he could set his hands upon. The incendiary rhetoric was secretly

shipped across the border into Italy, hidden by Genoese sailors in cargoes of

fish, fruit or chalk.

Among those sailors, there was a young fellow called Giuseppe Gari-

baldi. He had since fled his hometown, Nice, following some problems with

the local police, and had set off to sweeping ship decks across the Mediterra-

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nean Sea. When he was

25 years old, the ship he

was working on boarded

an eccentric bunch of

bearded Frenchmen. They

were led by a visionary

semi-prophet called Emile

Barrault, a follower of the

quasi-socialist doctrine of

Saint Simon. Garibaldi had

b e e n i m m e d i a t e l y

awestruck by the charisma

of the new guest. He lis-

tened raptly while the philosopher rambled on night after night, his bearded

features glistening under the stars and the moonshine. When he disem-

barked in Taganrog, on the shores of the Black Sea, he was a changed man.

It didn’t take long for him to join into the Giovine Italia, which was so far-

reaching as to be recruiting in the Levant, too.

Garibaldi and Mazzini were soon transformed into heroes of the pan-

European bourgeoisie. Garibaldi’s fighters hailed from distant, exotic lands.

One-eyed Brazilians and Uruguayan chieftains kissed his hand as he toured

Rome’s fetid slums on horseback, during the French siege to the Roman Re-

public of 1849. Foreign painters, who were in the Eternal City to enjoy the

bliss of the Grand Tour, ditched their brushes and followed his fluttering red

poncho all the way up onto the Gianicolo hill. The English public opinion was

particularly enthralled by Garibaldi. It avidly read comic strips describing the

revolutionary’s adventures on both shores of the Atlantic Ocean, and it even

renamed cookies after him. To the European bourgeoisie, Garibaldi was

nothing less than a 19th century Che Guevara.

The quest for Italian unification, however, had another side to it. In

the eighteen-hundreds, Italians were synonymous with international terror-

ism. Napoleon III, self-proclaimed Emperor of France and once enrolled

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within the ranks of the Italian Carboneria, knew what that meant. Already by

1858, he had narrowly escaped two attempts at his life. The third, however,

was the closest in reaching its goal. As the imperial couch was parading

through the streets of Paris, two ex-carbonari hurled a couple of bombs. The

monarch was spared once again, but the blasts massacred scores of onlook-

ers. The one who had conceived it all was another hothead, Felice Orsini,

who had taken part in revolutionary activities ever since he was 24 years old.

His intention was to punish the French Emperor for his betrayal of the Ro-

man Republic. Orsini’s trial was quickly transformed into a farce. He took the

center of the stage and harangued the court-witnesses. The haughty ladies

of the Parisian haute société sighed, starry-eyed, ensnared by his charisma.

Even the Emperor was moved by Orsini’s ardent rhetoric, to a point where

he stopped short of signing the latter’s release.

Finally, the great political actors of the unification, Cavour and King

Victor Emmanuel II. The former had been a hot-tempered, undisciplined stu-

dent. He had changed school after school because of his haughtiness and his

presumed laziness. Compared to his bookish older brother, he was consid-

ered by his family as an utter failure. In 1849, thanks to his father, he had

obtained a job at King Carlo Alberto’s court. He left it soon after, declaring

contemptuously that: “he detested the uniform, which made him look like a

prawn”. He certainly didn’t master the Italian language, nor did he fancy

studying it, either. Forced by his father to memorize Petrarch’s sonnets and

Dante’s works, he shouted them aloud while trampling up and down his liv-

ing-room, dressed in his night-gown. In his exuberance, however, lay geni-

us.

The King was nothing less, either. His temperament was very similar

to Cavour’s, and this might be the reason why the two never got along with

each other. Victor Emmanuel had barely endured the countless hours of

studying under the watch of a court of hollow, bigoted tutors. His father,

King Carlo Alberto, had personally selected them, conceivably in an effort to

purge himself of his own sense of guilt, which originated from his youthful

adventures during the uprisings of 1821. What the late king did not under-

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stand, however, was that his son was his mirror opposite. On one side Carlo

Alberto, perennially worn out, his measly figure caved in and hunched over

the horse even during battle. On the other side the irate, youthful Victor Em-

manuel, full with boundless energy, whose appetite for food and women

overflowed the limits of Turin’s austere court.

Victor Emmanuel understood nothing of politics, and this was proba-

bly the reason why his father decided to keep him away from it until his

forced abdication after the First War of Independence. He was, however, a

skilled fighter on the field. His role during the battle of Pastrengo was not at

all essential, contrary to what was claimed by contemporary chroniclers, but

he did valiantly lead the mounted Carabinieri in a furious charge.

The main characters of the Italian unification were therefore ex-

tremely young, when they set off to their goals. They had no unimaginable

talent, nor did they possess amazing amounts of available resources, at least

not in Mazzini’s and in Garibaldi’s case. They had however understood that

History was on their side. Large parts of the Italian bourgeoisie longed for

the elimination of the countless state borders and for the introduction of a

constitutional charter that would enshrine the principles of private property.

At the end of the First War of Independence, when Metternich’s great design

had triumphed and the old regimes had been reinstated, the Kingdom of Sar-

dinia was the only state in Europe to uphold the constitutional charter for

which it had shed so much blood. This choice, apparently out of time, would

have later marked Piedmont’s future as the most advanced of the Italian

statelets.

The message we wish to spread is therefore based on our historical

experience during the Risorgimento, and is somehow a follow-up to the New

Year’s speech given by the President of the Republic.

A society can reach its greatest changes and advancements only

through the contribution of its youngest generations. Those individuals, that

is to say, who are not bound to past ideologies and dilemmas and who are

ready for a new start. The youth of this country is firmly connected to the

rest of the world and is the part of the population that is most willing for a

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radical change. Internet activity, such as blogging, flourishes despite the in-

ternet infrastructure limitations that our country still hasn’t managed to tack-

le. Civil society is on the march, especially in the South, where the young are

rebelling against the power of organized crime. Last, but not least, an age

group that was accused of being venial and interested only in squalid reality

shows has filled the streets during political demonstrations and has sat by

the million in front of tv sets during the airing of political talk shows such as

Vieni Via con Me. Any political force which will not consider the requests aris-

ing from the most vital and most excluded section of Italian society, will

most certainly be doomed to a slow, relentless decay, today or tomorrow.

Let the message clear to all. Every one of us can become a Garibaldi, a

Mazzini, a Cavour. If young individuals like them accomplished something so

grand, why on Earth shouldn’t we?

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Born in Massa in 1953,

Cesare Maria Ragaglini

studied International

Relations at the Université

Libre de Bruxelles and

Political Science at the

University of Florence. A

diplomat since 1978, he has

represented Italy for over

thirty years, embarking on

roles of . He is Permanent Representative of Italy to the UN since 2009.

Mr. Ambassador, new nations are born almost every year, the latest

example being South Sudan; does the unification of Italy have any

lessons to offer today's nation builders?

The activities of the UN allow us to monitor a wide range of ex-

tremely complex situations worldwide, particularly in countries scarred by

deep conflicts that are engaged in the challenging task of reconstruction.

Their main challenges are to rebuild their communities from the ground up,

and to set aside the atrocities of the past in the search for common values

and shared goals.

The main contribution Italy can offer to such countries is the exam-

ple of a country that started off poor, relying almost entirely on agriculture,

experienced considerable migration flows, and yet managed to become one

of the eight most industrialised countries in the world in a rather short peri-

od. This may be due to the shared ideal of national unity, which enabled our

country to build a community of women and men with common values and

goals. Italy was then able to offer its citizens opportunities that did not exist

before unification. To offer great freedom to its people. Italy is a country

that, despite a shortage of raw materials, became one of the world’s biggest

exporters. Our country also offers both its citizens and all resident foreign

nationals one of the best health systems and highest living standards in the

Italy and the World, 150 years on

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world. This is the example that Italy could give to countries emerging from

fratricidal wars, demonstrating how patience, perseverance and the ability to

set aside past conflicts can be crucial to building a common future.

What have been Italy’s main contributions in the long history of its

UN membership?

Italy emerged from the Second World War defeated and in ruins,

having suffered also from a devastating civil war. Therefore we did not play

an active role in the early post-war reconstruction of the world and conse-

quently in the reshaping of international relations. But Italy did join the Unit-

ed Nations in 1955, since which time we have made a solid contribution to

multilateralism.

Today Italy performs a wide array of important activities that have

developed over the course of our UN membership. First and foremost is

peacekeeping, the core business of the UN, to maintain international peace

and stability. Italy is the largest European contributor of peacekeeping forc-

es. It is also the sixth financial contributor to UN peacekeeping activities, and

the sixth contributor to the regular budget. Italy has always been a leader in

international efforts to protect human rights, particularly when children and

women are concerned. In addition, we are conducting a campaign to eradi-

cate female genital mutilation.

Italy has led the movement to adopt a global moratorium on the

death penalty, which has now become almost universal, as attested to by

last December's resolution on the moratorium, which was approved by an

even larger margin than in previous years. This fills us with pride, particularly

considering our tradition of opposition to the death penalty, going all the

way back to Cesare Beccaria and his seminal writings.

Italy is making substantial contribution to the reform of one of the

main organs of the UN: the Security Council. Due to the controversial nature

of the issue, the proposal to reform the UN system has been debated for the

last 15 years. Italy is one of the lead actors in the reform debate because of

its ability to mediate between the needs and aspirations of all UN members.

Our Permanent Mission has always worked for greater democracy, transpar-

ency and representation on the Security Council and has always pursued the

goal of improving the Council's accountability to all UN member states. But

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this is an ongoing struggle, because there are a few countries within the UN

with opposing views on the idea of reform. We are working hard in the

hopes that our arguments may one day persuade all other member states to

agree on a reform project.

In a very dynamic global governance system, for instance with the

transformation of the G8 into G20, is Italy's role becoming weaker?

How can our country retain its weight on the international scene

and have its voice heard in the international community?

The issue of global governance is one of the most important items of

debate, together with the economic and financial crisis. You mentioned the

transformation of the G8 into G20. Currently the G8 can survive unaltered, or

could be expanded to a G14, with the inclusion of emerging economies. So

far the G20 mainly has had an economic and financial function. I would not

say that broadening a forum necessarily diminishes the influence of one of

its members. I believe that any country's ability to remain in the mainstream

of global governance depends largely on the country itself, and only margin-

ally on the identity and number of its interlocutors.

What determines the foreign policy of a country is the coherence of

its decisions, the patterns of its behavior, and, why not, the predictability of

that behavior, as well as, most importantly, its ability to honor its commit-

ments over time. Foreign policy is the external projection of what a country

truly is and of what a country believes it can offer to the rest of the world,

obviously without forgetting the essential need to protect and promote na-

tional interests. If any of these aspects is lacking, a country's foreign policy

will be eroded, regardless of any alteration in the dimensions of a decision in

which it participates. The perception other countries have of Italy or of any

other country depends largely on these factors.

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Professor Giuseppe Berta was born in 1958. He earned a de-gree in Literature in 1975 at the Università Statale di Mila-no. He currently teaches Con-temporary History at Bocconi University, Milan. Moreover, he was among the founders of ASSI (Associazione di Storia e Studi sull'Impresa – Associa-tion of History and Enterprise Studies), and its President from 2001 to 2003. He was in

charge of FIAT's historical archive from 1996 to 2002. Last but not least, he was on the Board of the "Biographic Dictionary of Italian Entrepreneurs", published by the Italian Encyclopedia.

Could you please summarize the achievements of Italy's unifica-tion? According to you, was the country able to reach its goals and to fulfill its intentions?

I strongly believe that our national unification was a very positive event. In order to better understand its importance, it would suffice to imag-ine what would have happened, had Italy maintained its previous institution-al structure. Every part of the country would have underperformed.

At first, the North would have probably developed at a faster pace. In the long run, however, its limited dimensions as a country would have stalled growth. It is very likely that Piedmont and Lombardy would not have benefit-ed as much as they did within a unified Italy. The great issue of National Unification, moreover, would have reasserted itself after the First World War and the dissolution of Austria-Hungary.

Italy has reaped the benefits of integration step by step. The pace, however, started to accelerate in the first years of the 1900s. Without a uni-fied nation, we would have never witnessed the economic boom of the 1960s and we would have never reached the great economic and social achievements that followed. Moreover, the little states that existed prior to Italy's unification would have never counted much on the global stage.

A Common Goal is Necessary

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The broad picture, therefore, implies that the great goals set forth by the Risorgimento have all been reached. We shouldn't forget, however, that Italy's unification is currently still in progress. The political project at Italy's birth as a nation was ill-defined. It was formed step by step along with the country's progressive integration.

Has there been any major change in the approach of politics and society towards the celebrations, when compared with the ones that took place for the 100th and 50th anniversary?

Definitely. In 1911, especially in Turin, Italy celebrated its technological and economic achievements. Turin's exposition heralded a new era for the nation by showcasing examples of industrial might. The message was clear: this was the city that had guided the process of unification; it would shep-herd the country into industrial development, too.

Concerning the 1961 celebrations, I have my own personal memories. I was among the many schoolchildren who visited the expositions set up for the 100th anniversary. I could feel the great confidence and optimism of a country that viewed itself as a young, dynamic Nation and that was in the exact middle of its greatest economic boom. Back then, Italy felt as if it could reach historical achievements in economic and social development.

Unfortunately, today's public mood is very different. The country seems to be scared of its future, recoiling from its challenges and losing ground in most of its areas of strength. Above all, there is a serious absence of clear, accepted ideas of what the country should become. Today's politicians seem unable to provide for guidance. This explains the fatigue with which we are approaching the current celebrations – we lost the momentum.

Ever since its birth as a nation, Italy has ventured onto the world stage with a confidence and an ambition that surpassed its real strengths (such as during the colonial quest and the two World Wars), in a struggle to be acknowledged as a "great power" by oth-er European nations. Do you reckon that such an anxious mood has lingered onto today's Italian society?

I wouldn't view such "strife for acknowledgment" as the spark for Na-tional Unity. Back then, our country simply wished to gain importance within the European scenario. There were many ways to achieve such results. Ca-vour, for example, aired his personal views on liberalism, which were greatly appreciated by the whole of advanced Europe. Walter Bagehot, at the time

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Director of "The Economist", stated at Cavour's death that the latter had been "A leader of an advancing age".

Crispi, on the other hand, pursued the colonial approach. He launched Italy into an imperial quest that was beyond the country's strength, as it be-came evident at the annihilation of the Italian army in Adwa, Ethiopia. These two views, despite very different one from the other, had one point in com-mon: Italy had a full right to claim full importance as one of the world's most powerful nations. Today, the country seems to have accepted its status as a secondary power, entering a phase of serious decline far greater than what experienced by the West vis-à-vis other global economic giants.

The country has therefore forsaken the great ideal of the Risorgimento, which viewed Italy as a nation with enormous potential and whom other peoples could admire. The consequence is that Italy has lost visibility on the world scene, its initial sphere of influence occupied by other emerging na-tions. This is the reason why it becomes so difficult nowadays to speak con-vincingly of Italy's role without fear of sounding merely rhetorical.

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Radwan Khawatmi was born in Alep-po, Syria and moved to Italy in 1970. At the beginning of 2000 he founded and became president of the Mo-vimento Nuovi Italiani (New Italians Movement) with the goal of promot-ing the integration of New Italians into Italy's society and legal system. Today his organization counts more than 41,000 members.

In 2009 Khawatmi received the pres-tigious MoneyGram award for immi-grant entrepreneurship and was re-cently awarded the Gold Medal of Valour from the Istituto Dante Alighi-eri for his contribution to preserve Italian cultural heritage.

What are the feelings of immigrants in our country in this moment of celebration for the 150th anniversary of Italian National Unifica-tion?

5 million regular immigrants in Italy will share two main feelings on this important date. On one hand there is great emotion for this anniversary, because we are an important part of Italian society and we recognize that unification was the admirable result of unimaginable efforts carried out by this Country's forefathers. On the other hand, however, there is a wide-spread sense of frustration in the face of the continuous efforts by some to isolate immigrants and exclude them from society in pursuit of grim political calculations.

Could you give us an idea of how civil society is organizing to cele-brate the 17th March? Is there a lot of mobilization or would you say that indifference prevails?

The vast majority of the immigrant community is preparing to cele-

The ‘New Italians’

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brate the 17th March. Ours is a very fascinating effort. We are studying the history of Italy and teaching it to our children, and there are extremely high levels of participation and attendance to our courses on the Italian Constitu-tion in Milan, Rome and Turin. We fully participate to celebrations alongside our Italian siblings. We bought Italian flags and we distributed them to the members of our organisation. This is our celebration. This is our country. Its history is our history. We are thankful for the welcome we received from the Italian people and we feel part of this Country's future.

More than 150 years ago Garibaldi, Mazzini and even Cavour were “immigrants” who returned to Italy to apply the skills they had learnt while abroad, and thus give momentum to the efforts to-wards unification. Can immigrants today do the same, “importing” their own success stories?

Not only Garibaldi and Mazzini, but also Jesus Christ and the Prophet Muhammad were immigrants. His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI mentioned it more than once in his speeches. Through their presence immigrants act in two different directions. First of all we have imported part of our culture and of our history and we have integrated it with the culture and history of this country. We do not believe in assimilation, in the annihilation of identity, in that kind of multiculturalism which has clearly failed us in the past. We fa-vour a smarter kind of integration, based on the respect for the values of the country that is hosting us, and on the awareness that our culture and our history are a value added. At the same time we undeniably learnt a lot from your marvelous history and we have assimilated the values of unification. God knows if we will ever have our Ali who will return to unify a torn Middle-East, turning the dreams of hundreds of millions Arabs into reality. I am cer-tain our Garibaldi is on his way. This is why the anniversary of 150 years of united Italy is a historic moment for us.

Do you think it will take another 150 years before we can see an immigrant joining the political leadership of our Country?

I hope not! However I cannot say I am particularly hopeful either, even if I am a natural optimist. The path is still very long. We cannot forget that this is a Country where some politicians and some political parties in search of a bunch of votes are willing to constantly terrify public opinion pro-moting the equation between immigration and crime. This country is led by a Prime Minister who once dared to say “I don't like Milan anymore because I see many coloured faces”; the Government keeps denying us the right to

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vote, and a few local administrations even thought of building walls to keep us isolated or of starting bus services only for Italians! In a country where some people imagine the possibility of having doctors, sheriffs and concen-tration camps for clandestine immigrants how can one hope to achieve full equality?

On the other hand, thank God, every day our people engage more and more in increasing productivity in Italy, moved by a great thirst for inte-gration; every day I see 800 thousand of our children integrating with their schoolmates. I see 11% of Italian GDP being created by immigrants, which amounts to €120 billion, and €8.5 billion are paid every year in contributions to the national pension scheme. Whenever I see the Italian flag and I sing the Italian National Anthem I get goose bumps, because this is my anthem, even if I was slightly late in joining your family. Trust us, we'll show you we deserve it. Long live Italy and long live its unification!

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Riccardo Molinari is the Vice-president of Pied-mont's regional council. Born in Alessandria in 1983, he completed his law degree at the Univer-sity of Genoa in 2008. A member of the Northern League since 1999, he became the national coor-dinator of the Po plain student movement in 2001. In 2010 he was

elected for the first time in the regional council and during the inaugural ses-sion of May 3rd 2010 was elected Vice-president of the legislative assembly.

The Piedmont region is considered the "cradle" of the Italian unifi-cation. What meaning do you attribute to the fact that this region is governed by your party, the Northern League, which has always been very critical towards the unification?

The Northern League with Governor Cota won the elections because it has a record of good management: Novara is an example, as are the prov-inces of Cuneo and Biella and other important cities in the region. Moreover, I believe that our voters rewarded the effectiveness of the League's minis-ters in Rome. I don't see any contradiction in the fact that the Italian unifica-tion started in Turin with the Northern League now governing the Piedmont region.

The establishment of a national holiday on March 17 has triggered a sharp division within the governing coalition. Are you going to be working next Thursday? Why?

I will work next Thursday, as I am used to do on Saturdays and Sun-days as well. The Northern League opposed the establishment of this nation-al holiday for two reasons: firstly, given the economic crisis and the stagnant economic situation our country is going through, another unproductive day is certainly not helpful. Secondly, if we make an assessment of the past 150

Nothing to Celebrate

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years there isn't much reason to celebrate.

Bossi [the Northern League's leader] in January claimed that Ca-vour died before completing his project for Italy, which should have actually been a federal state instead of a unitary one. Do you agree with this statement?

Absolutely. Italy, born from the non-spontaneous unification of dif-ferent independent sovereign states, could only find a normal organization of the state within a federal system. I believe that the statesmen of the time reasoned instead along the lines of a strongly centralized state in order to avoid an immediate fragmentation of the different local autonomies under the Savoy crown. A completely wrong choice.

Do you think that in the next 150 years the country will split? Is the creation of a "federal, independent and sovereign" Po plain Re-public pursuant to article 1 of your charter still an paramount goal?

The State will split if we don't implement fiscal federalism. Or rather, Italy is already split in two: there are regions like Piedmont who are strug-gling to restrain public expenditure and restore public finances, for example through the upcoming reform of the health system; whereas the are regions like Calabria where criminal organizations control the territory and the health budget is passed on orally, as the deficit is not even computable. In view of the recession and the growing need to save funds, either the other half of the country becomes more responsible, or the country will inevitably fall apart. The federal reform will benefit everyone, from north to south, and is the only thing that can keep this country together.

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150th: Shadows and hopes

Giovanni Orsina is a published historian and Associated Professor in the Political Science Department of LUISS Guido Carli Universi-ty. He is also Director of the university’s Master’s in European Studies and Deputy Director of the LUISS school of Govern-ment. In 2003 he is visiting professor at SciencesPo Paris. Since October 2001 he is scientific director of the Luigi Einaudi Fon-dation for political and economical studies in Rome. As Italy reaches its 150th birthday, there are still those who criticise the unification process and question the real meaning of being Italian. Could

you draw us a quick picture of the country’s current situation? Has it met its original goals?

To be fair, and if we look at substantive issues, the picture of these 150 years of Italian unification cannot be put a rosy one. In one way or another, this country “latched on” to the train of modernity again, which it was distant from in the XIX century; it has grown economically, at times in an extraordinary manner; it has grown culturally; and it has become a lib-eral democracy, albeit one that is relatively stunted. Faced with these re-sults it would be from a historiographer’s perspective mistaken, as well as harsh, to overemphasise the negative aspects of the century and half of unified history.

That said, more than a few negative aspects have obviously exist-ed, and still exist. The country has “grown up”, to significant extents, but it hasn’t always grown up properly. A bit like Oskar Matzerath in Gunther Grass’ The Tin Drum, who decides to halt his growth at age three, and then, when he starts growing again, is hunch-backed. Grass’ Matzerath is a metaphor of Germany, but we could easily use him as a metaphor for Italy. What is most striking, naturally, is the absent, or at best partial, solution to the divide between northern and southern Italy. Undoubtedly more – and better – had to be done, to reduce this divide. Although one does have to wonder whether part of the problem doesn’t stem from a certain “intractability” of the southern question, whose roots are probably deeper and more resistant than many intellectuals and politicians have believed –

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or hoped. The other aspect that is striking of the Italian condition is the inabil-

ity to build legitimate and stable political institutions: a result that other Eu-ropean countries, even those that aren’t particularly “easy”, like France or Germany, managed decades ago. It is this instability, in 2011, that draws a long ominous shadow over the celebrations. Amongs the main characters of the Risorgimento, we find Carlo Cattaneo, who was a federalist. 150 years from its unification, is it advisable to build a new Federalist Italy?

The federalist path, had it been successful, would have resulted in a profoundly different Italy, however, in the historical context of the Risorgi-mento, it was a path that had few if any chances to succeed. Today there is a federalising trend, and it doesn’t look like a trend that will be halted or re-verse. Furthermore, it would be mistaken to attribute this trend purely to the Northern League: the tendency to decentralise accelerated with the creation of regions with ordinary statue, around 1970, and then with the crisis of the “first” republic, which acted as a centripetal force. It is precisely this latter element that seems particularly weak today. The “historic” parties don’t exist any more, and those of the “second” republic lack a real sense of national cohesion. Roman institutions - and politics in Rome in general - are weak. Currently, only the charismatic leadership of Berlusconi seems capable of attracting approval in both the North and the South – but as is evident, it is the leadership of a frayed and hotly contested septuagenarian. The accelera-tion of the federalist project that does not include plans to strengthen the centre would generate centrifugal dynamics that would be dangerous, to say the list. Nevertheless, this seems to be the path the country is following. This is worrying. For decades Italy was a country of migrants. In the last twenty years, the situation was reversed and the country became a haven of hope. How will the country change, in your opinion, faced with this social shift? It will change enormously, like the rest of the Western world, after all. The historic transformation we are living could dwarf the already enor-mous ones of the XIX and XX centuries. Thankfully, humanity has learnt a little on how to deal with transformation, even through bitter experiences and colossal mistakes. In managing migrant flows, Italy’s challenge is that of successful integration: welcome new arrivals prudently, while attempting at the same time to maintain the framework of values it has inherited from its Christian, humanist, liberal tradition. Integration however requires two agents: the integrator and the integrated, and we already struggle control-

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ling ourselves, let alone others. The question, furthermore, needs to be placed in a global context: if the processes of global interdependence are managed well, then the repercussions will not be devastating. Should that not happen, we will all be in serious trouble.

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Conscious that young people the world over grapple with what to write on their CV,

l’Appello decided to play a little game: if the main characters of Italian unification

were to write their CVs in their twenties and thirties, what would these look like?

Partly to kid around, but also to humanise those sombrely referred to as “Founding

Fathers”, we decided to publish the curricula of Cavour, Garibaldi, Mazzini and King

Victor Emmanuel II. Enjoy!

CANDIDATE #1 Date and Place of Birth: 10 August 1810, Turin Education: 1820 – 1825: Turin Military Academy 1826 – 1827: Royal Academy of Turin Study abroad: February – April 1835: Erasmus in Paris. Studied industrial development and political institutions. May 1835 – 1837: Erasmus in London. Studied political institutions. 1837 – 1840: Erasmus in Paris at the Sorbonne. Work experience: 1824: Internship at the Court of Charles Albert, heir to the throne (2 months) 1827 – 1830: In charge of the fortification of Ventimiglia and Modane 1832: Estate manager (Grinzane, Cuneo), in charge of maintenance of grounds and irrigation. Interests: Industrial development, commerce and free trade, political economy

Languages: French: perfectly fluent Piedmontese dialect: mother tongue Italian: Advanced

CAMILLO BENSO CONTE DI CAVOUR PRESIDENT OF THE COUNCIL OF MINISTERS OF THE KINGDOM OF ITALY

Heroes Looking For a Job

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CANDIDATE #2 Date and Place of Birth: 4 July 1807, Nice Education: Homeschooled with his father Guillaume and “Signor Arena” Study abroad: 1819: Three day adventure, arrival in Monaco 1820 – 1833: Istanbul, Athens, Odessa, Taganrog, Rome, Livorno, all of the Central and Eastern Mediterranean Work experience: 1820: Internship, cabin boy on cargo ships travelling around the Central and Eastern Mediterranean. 1825: Wine courier during the Roman Jubilee, port of Ostia. February 1834: Organisation of revolutionary activities in Genoa Interests: Ancient Roman History, french literature, travelling, Storia di Roma Antica, French literature, Medieval poetry, Ugo Foscolo Lingue: Genoese dialect: mother tongue French: advanced Italian: advanced

GIUSEPPE GARIBALDI HERO OF THE TWO WORLDS

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CANDIDATE #3 Date and Place of Birth: 22 June 1805, Genoa Education: 1819: Genoa University, medicine. 1820 - 1827: Genoa University, law school. Degree in Civil and Canon Law. Experiences Abroad: 1831 – 1834: Marseille, France. Developing revolutionary activities. 1834: Grenchen, Switzerland. Developing revolutionary activities. Work experience: 1827: Collaboration with the newspapers L’Indicatore Genovese, L’Antologia and L’Indicatore Livornese. Literary reviews. 1827: Joins the Freemasonry (Carboneria), lieutenant in the Valtellina area. Organization of revolutionary activities. 1831: Founds the organization Giovine Italia. Revolutionary activities. Interests: Literature (Goethe, Shakespeare, Foscolo), essays. Languages: Italian: mother tongue French: perfectly fluent English: perfectly fluent

GIUSEPPE MAZZINI INSPIRER OF THE REVOLUTION, “FATHER” OF REPUBLICANISM

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CANDIDATE #4 Date and Place of birth: 14 March 1820, Turin Education: Home-schooling with the Count Cesare of Saluzzo, General Ettore De Son-naz, theologian Andrea Charvaz, historian Lorenzo Isnardi and jurist Giuseppe Manno. Study Abroad: N/A Work experience: 1831 - 1849: appointed Duke of Savoy, traineeship at the Royal Court. April 1848: Leads the charge of the Royal Carabinieri in the Battle of Pas-trengo. Interests: Horse-riding, duels, military operations, gymnastics, hiking. Languages: French: perfectly fluent Piedmontese dialect: mother tongue Italian: good

VICTOR EMMANUEL II FIRST KING OF THE KINGDOM OF ITALY

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Alexios Mantzarlis ([email protected]) was born in Rome

on December 15th, 1988. He studied Philosophy, Politics and

Economics at the University of York, and holds an Msc in

Economics from the University of Bocconi as well as an MA in

European Affairs from the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris. He

is currently an intern at the UN Headquarters in New York City.

Carlo Starace ([email protected]) was born in Milan on

September 3rd, 1986. He studied Economics at the University of

Bocconi, and holds a Master’s in Diplomatic Studies from the SIOI

in Rome. After an experience at UNDP in Cairo, he is currently an

intern at Roland Berger.

Flavia Mi ([email protected]) was born in Rome on February 13th

1988. She studied History and Politics at the University of Warwick

and holds a Master’s in European Studies from LUISS Guido Carli

University. She is currently in Brussels working as an intern in the

Bosnia and Herzegovina unit in the European Commission’s DG

Enlargement.

Pietro Curatolo ([email protected]) was born in Roma on

January 18th, 1988. He received a Law degree from Bocconi

University, and is now in Brussels for an internship at the European

Commission’s DG Competition.

Marco Seàn McAllister ([email protected]) was born in

Milan on June 25th 1986. He holds a BA in Economics and Politics

and an MA in Post-Conflict Reconstruction Studies from the

University of York. He is currently coordinating a Caritas l’Aquila

project aimed at rebuilding the social fabric in the new towns built

after the earthquake.

The Crew

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Permanent Mission of Italy to the United Nations One Dag Hammarskjold Plaza, New York, N.Y. 10017

Tel. (212) 486 9191, Fax (212) 486 1036, e-mail: [email protected]

www.italyun.esteri.it