In 2015 the economic crisis had to be faced. Seven years later, the biggest emergency is the health crisis triggered by the coronavirus. In the first case the key word had been “hope”, in 2022 the guiding concept becomes “dignity”. These are the elements that emerge when comparing the two inauguration speeches of the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella (both delivered on February 3): a record that he shares with his predecessor Giorgio Napolitano, the only one with him to have been elected twice to the Quirinale. An intervention by 38 minutes interrupted by 52 cheers for re-election. Thirty-five minutes of duration and 40 cheers seven years ago.
The reform of justice
The most evident difference emerges from the space reserved for justice. If in 2015 the topic had been touched upon in a single passage (“guaranteeing the Constitution means … that justice can be obtained quickly”), in 2022 the greeting to the judiciary becomes an opportunity for a peremptory reminder of the need for ” a profound reform process “and the urge to recover” a profound rigor “. ” overcoming the logic of belonging which, by constitutional dictates, must remain extraneous to the judiciary ».
The role of Parliament
In his speech on February 3, 2022, Mattarella stressed that «particularly with regard to the fundamental acts of government of the country, Parliament is always placed in a position to be able to examine and evaluate them in an appropriate time. The forced compression of parliamentary times represents a risk that is certainly no less than unjustified and harmful delays in time ».
Concepts that can be found in what Mattarella said seven years ago, when the Head of State just read had spoken of the “need to overcome the logic of the constant derogation from the ordinary forms of the legislative process, balancing the need for government with respect for guarantees procedures of a correct parliamentary dialectic “. An ancient theme of which traces can also be found in Napolitano’s messages.
Young people and work
“Many, too many young people are often forced into precarious and poorly paid jobs, when not confined to existential peripheries” is the painful observation registered in 2022. Words in which the memory of what the Head of State observed seven years earlier when he spoke of the ” work that is lacking for many young people, especially in the South ». And among the “faces of Italians” he drew attention to those “of young people looking for work”.