The Atp Finals, starting in two weeks. The Eurovision Song, won by overcoming fierce competition. And now the festival of Economics, grabbed thanks to a thrust of the kidneys, slipping quickly and decisively to seize the opportunity that had arisen. If there is something that unites these three recent conquests of Turin, it is a fourth conquest, also rediscovered shortly after years of bewilderment: the ability to create a system in the noble sense of the term rather than in the opaque twist that for a long time this word is been attributed.
When from the columns of La Stampa the proposal was launched to bring the Festival of Economics that was migrating from Trento to Turin, no one could imagine how the city would react, if it would drop the idea or ride it. He rode it, and with enough force to convince the organizers that this was the right place. Not only because Turin is a European capital of the economy, for a long time the locomotive of Italy and today one of the centers in which the reflection on the themes that will be at the center of the Festival is deeper: merit, diversity, social justice, a new declination after the years of the great crisis and in the wake of the pandemic, in which the theme of social mending and the fight against inequalities is living flesh both for those who guide the city and for those who live there. The fact is also that in the last twenty years Turin has proven not to miss a beat when it comes to hosting an event, showing reliability in the organization and an immediate ability to ignite the passion. In recent times, a new piece has been added: a city system, capable of forming a common front when there is a shared goal. That system took up the proposal of La Stampa and helped it to give itself a shape, a project, some resources.
The city is experiencing fragile years: it shrinks, its productive assets and its social networks are put to the test. It has also, over time, lost consideration of itself, when the heady Olympic blaze was overwhelmed by the great crisis of 2008. But precisely because it is anxiously looking for its place in the world, it has a very strong will to be at the center of things and events. And above all, her bodies have learned that crises, as well as opportunities, are managed without running to oneself. In recent years, a sort of collective governance of complex issues has emerged, in which each of the main actors – from the Municipality to the Region, from banking foundations to categories, from universities to trade unions up to the diocese – participates in the solution of major problems or in research great opportunities. Thus was put an end to the largest occupation in Europe, in the buildings of the former Moi, where over a thousand people lived in conditions that trampled their dignity as human beings. This is how the tennis ATP Finals took hold. And so, because a piece of the front abdicated, the 2026 Olympics were lost.
Now comes the Festival of Economics. And it is yet another demonstration of the fact that when this territory marches compactly, almost nothing is impossible.