For over forty years it has marked the resumption of politics at the end of the summer break. But with the elections in a month, the 43rd edition of the CL Meeting is destined to be more than ever a first-rate forum in the midst of the first summer election campaign in Republican history. From 20 to 25 August at the Rimini kermesse, which every year registers the presence of the elite of Italian politics and economy (as well as, of course, of the ecclesial panorama) whose theme this year is “A passion for man” , the politicians will be many.
Draghi’s return after the 2020 speech
Starting with Prime Minister Mario Draghi (24 August), an “old acquaintance” of the Meeting, where he is at his third participation. In 2020, shortly after leaving the leadership of the ECB, here he delivered a speech interpreted by many as the manifesto of his future government. It was at the Meeting that the Prime Minister made the famous distinction between the “good debt”, used for production purposes, investments in human capital, in infrastructures crucial for production, in research, and the “bad debt” of subsidies. defining the first crucial to get out of the pandemic economic crisis. Draghi to the people of CL also spoke of the need for economic growth capable of respecting the environment and the person, income security and long-term sustainability: principles then reaffirmed when, in February 2021, the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella he called for a government.
Ministers and governors
In Rimini, therefore, nine ministers in addition to the premier, and many regional governors, but also the president of the European Parliament Roberto Metsola and the EU commissioner Paolo Gentiloni will come to meet the thousands of volunteers and militants of the ecclesial movement founded by don Luigi Giussani: a movement that no longer postulates clear references in exponents and political parties as in the past, and that at the Meeting wants once again “to listen to understand who really cares about the common good,” says one of the organizers.
The program of the event, which opens its doors on August 20 with a focus on two very high-temperature areas such as Russia and the Holy Land in which the Apostolic Nuncio in Moscow and the Patriarch of Jerusalem will participate, provides for the presence of political leaders. On Tuesday 23 at 12 at the conference in collaboration with the Intergroup for Subsidiarity Luigi Di Maio, Enrico Letta, Maurizio Lupi, Giorgia Meloni, Ettore Rosato, Matteo Salvini and Antonio Tajani will meet: it will be the first major confrontation in the presence of the election campaign. In the Rimini week, then, episodes of other leaders are absolutely not to be excluded.
Waiting for the president of Cei Zuppi
In addition to that of the Prime Minister Draghi, scheduled for August 24, the speech that the president of the Italian Bishops’ Conference will give before the people of CL, on August 21, is particularly awaited. It is not the first time that the Cardinal Archbishop of Bologna Matteo Maria Zuppi speaks at the Meeting: however this year for the first time he takes the Rimini stage representing all the Italian bishops, so warnings and indications are expected in view of the electoral consultation. Particularly awaited, on 22 August, the meeting with the president of the Consulta Giuliano Amato and the confrontation between the presidents of seven Italian regions and the province of Trento.