The continuity has been interrupted and in case only new germinations will follow, perhaps from the old trunk. But the old trunk, in fact, is dry. Ciriaco De Mita, in fact, was the one who took the party that was the country and accompanied it, in fact, in its last moment of glory. After him the Christian Democracy was only a short survival, and those moments of success that he continued to have were like the red on the cheeks of the girls of the past, when they were sick with consumption: apparent health, in reality premonition.
This was certainly not what De Mita envisaged, although he was one of the most subtle and profound minds in the analysis of a party and of a generation who had made the spirit of political finesse, even more than a deadly instrument, the very reason for to be alive. He was capable of enchanting the hours, with that soft accent to excess, with his analyzes of him. After all, analysis in Greek indicates the process of studying within something in order to identify its elements. And he, a man from the south, cultured and studious, had become the Master of this process. As for the Greek, we will see later.
The official Italian annals of the seasoned Republic, which are then Deagostini’s “The Chronology of the History of Italy”, cite for the first time De Mita Ciriaco on page 631, year domini 1964, for an act of gagliofferia. He had just resigned from the Quirinale Antonio Segni, due to the aftermath of a very stormy conversation with Moro and Saragat. The DC nominated Giovanni Leone for the succession. The secular parties of the constitutional arc nominated Saragat. Fanfani, as always, nominated himself. What’s up with you, De Mita? He ends up suspended from the party: they caught him voting as a pipe went to him. Since no one liked him (little Leone, let alone Fanfani) together with that other structural villain who was Carlo Donat Cattin, he had deposited in the urn a candid ballot as the two claimed to be their consciences, but not as the Party strongly advised. But the Party – the parties – at that time was a serious matter, and it didn’t let itself be fooled too easily. Out for a ride. For thoroughbred horses it is good to eat bran mush every now and then: they learn discipline. To understand this side – gradually hidden over the years – of De Mita’s character, it is necessary to jump back in time, up to his first stays in Rome. We have never heard much about him from that period, yet a lot of his Bildung comes from there. De Mita was in fact the son of a small tailor from a small village, called Nusco, in the deepest heart of Irpinia. Strong of a character not very inclined to give up (we have just seen this) and of indisputable cerebral skills, he had reached the degree from the Cattolica in Milan, where he had met a group of peers with a fateful fate for him, who introduced him to politics. For this he abandoned his first love, which was the Academy, and with the friends who had initiated him to new horizons he went down to Rome. The Third Christian Democratic Generation was born
In Rome, the Third Generation found lodging at a local Mrs. Hudson, in the Prati district. Mrs. Valentinetti is one of those women who made up the Republic: Gerardo Bianco, Mario Agnes and even Vincenzino Scotti stayed with her, together with De Mita. A nourished part of the future Milanese DC passed by that house. In her living room, congresses and candidacies were decided, between a conference of Greek scholars in Heidelberg and a publication on advanced labor law. And while we were discussing – why this too was the Party – of constitutional reforms and the prospects of an agreement with the left, every now and then someone got up, she dressed up as Befana and looked out from the window overlooking the inner courtyard. The children of the building each year waited confidently for the appointment. An equally large group of future jurists, journalists, academics, economists and senior officials from the European Union entered that apartment in the early 1950s to leave it different in spirit. As for the quality of that spirit, it should be known that they too went to Via Veneto in the evening, but not to philosophize. They specialize in sneaking uninvited into large hotel receptions, and that’s where we stop. Sassaroli and Perozzi, you are only pale and late imitators. Meanwhile, De Mita spent many of his days in the living room. “Ciri ‘, what are you doing?” the others asked him. “I’m dangling,” he replied. And they gave him a button to sew: his father had taught him the trade. If someone believes that politics is the art of doing, know that he is very wrong, because De Mita has always conceived politics like this: thought, reasoning. The doing comes later.
In fact, after the stage of thinking, he turned to active politics and not without satisfaction. It is true: he was still residing in Prati who attempted the climb to the town hall of Nusco, but he did not succeed. The rest, however, came to him well: he had thought of Nusco too far in advance. He entered Parliament in ’63, after having successfully climbed the DC Avellino this time. Rehabilitated after the story of Leone and Fanfani, he would become undersecretary and minister over and over again. Even more: he would have made a generational pact. It was 1969, he and another stomping horse with long legs like all thoroughbreds, called Arnaldo Forlani, met with Bartolo Ciccardini in San Ginesio, in the province of Macerata. All forty years old, they agreed to make a generational leap in quality that could allow the country to experience a new season of relaunch in the face of the challenges of the future in a complex and advanced democracy that collected the questions of the new season. At the court: take out the old Christian Democrat guard. They succeeded: Arnaldo secretary of the DC, Ciriaco deputy. Rumor and the dorotei outside. Andreotti always there, because that was a tough nut to crack. The star, between the two, however, seemed to be Forlani, or at least it was Forlani who then took center stage. De Mita in the front row, but just a little more in the shade.
So, when in 1982 he announced his intention to take over the secretariat himself, only the most skilled among the professionals were not surprised. They understood that, once again, Ciriaco was emerging from a long reflection in a drawing room, and that he would act. He obtained the secretariat on the promise of renewal, which was understandable after the two-year stagnation of Flaminio Piccoli. He did his part to keep it: in Sicily, for example, he identified in the new course the figure of a reserved and prepared young jurist, marked by a family tragedy: Sergio Mattarella. For the IRI, which at the time was so much part of national economic policy, he identified Romano Prodi. He too would lead the way.
The climb
In fact, after the stage of thinking, he turned to active politics and not without satisfaction. It is true: he was still residing in Prati who attempted the climb to the town hall of Nusco, but he did not succeed. The rest, however, came to him well: he had thought of Nusco too far in advance. He entered Parliament in ’63, after having successfully climbed the DC Avellino this time. Rehabilitated after the story of Leone and Fanfani, he would become undersecretary and minister over and over again. Even more: he would have made a generational pact. It was 1969, he and another stomping horse with long legs like all thoroughbreds, called Arnaldo Forlani, met with Bartolo Ciccardini in San Ginesio, in the province of Macerata. All forty years old, they agreed to make a generational leap in quality that could allow the country to experience a new season of relaunching in the face of the challenges of the future in a complex and advanced democracy that collected the questions of the new season.
In court: take out the old Christian Democrat guard. They succeeded: Arnaldo secretary of the DC, Ciriaco deputy. Rumor and the dorotei outside. Andreotti always there, because that was a tough nut to crack. The star, between the two, however, seemed to be Forlani, or at least it was Forlani who took the center of the stage right there. De Mita in the front row, but just a little more in the shade. So, when in 1982 he announced his intention to take over the secretariat himself, only the most skilled among the professionals were not surprised. They understood that, once again, Ciriaco was emerging from a long reflection in a drawing room, and that he would act. He obtained the secretariat on the promise of renewal, which was understandable after the two-year stagnation of Flaminio Piccoli. He did his part to keep it: in Sicily, for example, he identified in the new course the figure of a reserved and prepared young jurist, marked by a family tragedy: Sergio Mattarella. For the IRI, which at the time was so much part of national economic policy, individual Romano Prodi. He too would lead the way.
The deal
Their political clarity was appalling: the review process was already over even before it began. Much of the later reform stammering would probably have been spared if that project had passed. It must be said that, thanks to Faustian intelligence and coldness, perhaps never as at that moment did the BRs prove to be disciples of Dostoevsky’s Demons. De Mita’s stay at Palazzo Chigi was the fruit of yet another pact, this time with one of the few men who was able to stand up to him. It was Bettino Craxi, the secretary of a Socialist Party he had brought from the shallows of 6 percent to the peaks of 16. Percentages that condemn ignorance in a majority, but in a proportional way they can put the golden keys of the control room in their hands . The relationship with Craxi was always stormy, either because De Mita was oriented rather towards a privileged relationship with the PCI, or because the character of both did not help, or because the socialists were those of Milan to drink, and therefore rampant and overflowing even in politics. In the end, the two agreed on the passage of the relay: Craxi, who wanted to obscure the Spanish socialist star of Felipe Gonzalez, began at the Presidency of the Council, but then it was De Mita’s turn. Craxi – this alone is enough to remember the climate – never missed an opportunity to remind him that the government, in order to continue to hold up, needed the Prime Minister to bring breakfast in bed to the PSI secretary every morning. The real danger, however, came as a textbook from the ranks of party friends. The double Demitian assignment at Palazzo Chigi and Piazza del Gesù sparked the reaction of ancient acolytes and old antagonists. The Gulf Stream (of Naples) was born, promoted by Forlani: an internal Neodorothean component led by two Campania docs. One was Antonio Gava, the other – note – Scotti. Andreotti did not miss the opportunity; Craxi from a distance was not at all sorry. De Mita at home, with the sop of the Party presidency (nothing, in fact), Forlani back to the secretariat and Andreotti to the Prime Minister. But it was July 1989, the summer of revolutions that closed the circle of history for many other parties.
The Caf (Craxi, Andreotti, Forlani) danced only for one season. After the chaos of 1992-94, the first was in Hammamet, the second struggling with enormous legal troubles (from which he came out, after a long time), the third in private life. De Mita had returned to reflect, this time in his living room in Nusco. He would get out of it again.