On January 27, 2024, the Day of Remembrance is observed, marking the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz to commemorate the Holocaust, racial laws, persecution, and deportation.
The IUSS School honors this occasion by publishing the full text of the speech by Senator for Life Liliana Segre, delivered at Palazzo Madama on October 13, 2022.
In the centenary of fascism's rise to power, the Holocaust survivor and Senator for Life assumes the provisional presidency in the Senate's first session.
The complete speech by Liliana Segre
Colleague Senators, Colleagues,
I extend the warmest greetings to President Sergio Mattarella and this Chamber. With respect, my thoughts go to Pope Francis. Certain to represent the sentiments of the entire Assembly, I wish to address President Emeritus Giorgio Napolitano, who could not preside over today's session, with the warmest wishes and the hope for a speedy return to the Senate. President Napolitano charges me with sharing these words: "I wish to express to all senators, both old and new, the best wishes for good work, exclusively in the service of our country and the parliamentary institution to which I have dedicated a large part of my life."
Naturally, I also extend a particularly warm greeting to all new colleagues, who I imagine are overwhelmed by the weight of the responsibility that awaits them and the solemnity of this chamber, just as I was when I first entered, tiptoeing. As is customary, I would like to express some brief personal reflections.
"Hanging over all of us in these weeks is the chilling atmosphere of war returning to our Europe, close to us, with all its burden of death, destruction, cruelty, terror, an endless madness. I join the punctual words of President Sergio Mattarella: 'Peace is urgent and necessary. The path to rebuilding it passes through reestablishing truth, international law, and the freedom of the Ukrainian people.'"
Today, I am particularly moved by the role that fate reserves for me on this day. In this month of October, which marks the centenary of the March on Rome that initiated fascist dictatorship, it falls to someone like me to temporarily assume the presidency of this temple of democracy, the Senate of the Republic. And the symbolic value of this coincidental circumstance amplifies in my mind because, you see, in my time, school started in October. It is impossible for me not to feel a sort of dizziness, remembering that the same girl who, on a day like this in 1938, disheartened and lost, was forced by racial laws to leave her elementary school desk empty, now finds herself, by a strange twist of fate, on the most prestigious desk in the Senate!
The Senate of the nineteenth legislature is a deeply renewed institution, not only in political balances and the elected individuals but also because, for the first time, young people aged 18 to 25 were able to vote for this Chamber. More significantly, for the first time, the elected members are reduced to 200. Belonging to such a rarefied assembly can only increase in all of us the awareness that the country is watching us, that our responsibilities are great, but at the same time, the opportunities to set an example are significant. Setting an example does not only mean fulfilling our simple duty, that is, carrying out our office with "discipline and honor," committing ourselves to serve the institutions and not to use them. We could also indulge in the pleasure of leaving the shouted politics outside this assembly, which has contributed so much to growing voter disenchantment, instead interpreting a "high" and noble politics that, without diminishing the firmness of different convictions, shows respect for opponents, opens sincerely to listening, and expresses itself with kindness, even gentleness.
The elections on September 25 saw, as it should be, lively competition between different factions presenting alternative programs and often opposing visions to the country. And the people decided. It is the essence of democracy. The majority emerging from the ballot has the right-duty to govern; minorities have the equally fundamental task of providing opposition. Common to all must be the imperative to preserve the Republic's institutions, which belong to everyone, are not owned by anyone, must operate in the country's interest, and must guarantee all parties. Mature democracies demonstrate their maturity if, above partisan divisions and the exercise of various roles, they can unite in an essential core of shared values, respected institutions, and recognized emblems.
In Italy, the main anchor around which the unity of our people must manifest itself is the Republican Constitution, which, as Piero Calamandrei said, is not a piece of paper but the testament of 100,000 fallen in the long struggle for freedom; a struggle that did not begin in September 1943 but ideally saw Giacomo Matteotti as a leader. The Italian people have always shown great attachment to their Constitution; they have always felt it as a friend. On every occasion they were consulted, citizens always chose to defend it because they felt defended by it. And even when Parliament failed to respond to the request to intervene on regulations not in line with constitutional principles – and unfortunately, this has happened often – our fundamental law still allowed the Constitutional Court and the judiciary to carry out valuable work in case law, always evolving the law. Of course, the Constitution is perfectible and can be amended (as it itself foresees in Art. 138), but allow me to observe that if the energies that have been spent for decades to change the Constitution – with modest and sometimes worsening results – had instead been used to implement it, our country would be fairer and happier. The thought inevitably goes to Art. 3, in which the founding fathers and mothers were not satisfied with banning those discriminations based on "sex, race, language, religion, political opinions, personal and social conditions," which were the essence of the ancien regime. They also wanted to leave a perpetual task to the "Republic": "remove the obstacles of economic and social order that, in fact, limit the freedom and equality of citizens, preventing the full development of the human person and the effective participation of all workers in the political, economic, and social organization of the country." It's not poetry and it's not utopia: it's the North Star that should guide all of us, even if we have different programs to follow it: remove those obstacles!
Moreover, great nations demonstrate their greatness by collectively recognizing themselves in civil festivities, fraternizing around the anniversaries inscribed in the great book of national history. Why shouldn't it be the same for the Italian people? Why should these dates be experienced as "divisive" rather than with genuine republican spirit, such as April 25, Liberation Day, May 1, Labor Day, and June 2, Republic Day? On this issue of full sharing of national holidays, dates that mark an agreement between generations, between memory and the future, the value of example could be great, with new and perhaps unexpected gestures. Another area where overcoming barriers and assuming a common responsibility is desirable is the fight against the spread of hate speech, against the brutalization of public discourse, against the violence of prejudices and discriminations. Allow me to recall a virtuous precedent: in the previous legislature, the works of the "Extraordinary Commission for the Contrast of Intolerance, Racism, Antisemitism, and Incitement to Hatred and Violence" concluded with the unanimous approval of a guidance document.
Signs of an awareness and will that transcend political alignments, which is essential to endure.
I conclude with two hopes. I hope that the new legislature sees a unanimous commitment from all members of this assembly to uphold the prestige of the Senate, substantively protect its prerogatives, and reaffirm in action, not just in words, the centrality of Parliament. For a long time, there has been lamentation from various quarters about a drift, a degradation of the legislative power's role due to the abuse of emergency decrees and the reliance on votes of confidence. The serious emergencies that have characterized recent years could only exacerbate this trend. In my naivety as a mother and with my strong conviction, I believe that it is necessary to interrupt the long series of past mistakes, and for this, it would be enough for the majority to remember the abuses it denounced when it was in the minority, and for the minorities to remember the excesses they attributed to the opposition when they were in power. A healthy and honest institutional collaboration, without undermining the physiological distinction of roles, would allow the majority of legislative production to return to its natural course, ensuring at the same time certain timelines for voting.
Lastly, I hope that the entire Parliament, with unity of purpose, can collaborate with the Government to put forth an extraordinary and urgent commitment to respond to the cry of distress coming from many families and businesses struggling under the blows of inflation and the exceptional surge in energy costs. They see a dark future, fear that inequalities and injustices will further expand rather than diminish. In this sense, we will always have the European Union by our side with its values and the concrete solidarity it has shown capable of in recent years during severe health and social crises. There is no time to lose: a clear signal must come from democratic institutions that no one will be left alone, before fear and anger reach critical levels and overflow.
Senators, dear Colleagues, good work!