Prodi, the Via Emilia and the Communists. “I was studying Latin in the PCI’s house” – breaking latest news

We anticipate an excerpt from Romano Prodi’s first autobiography, written together with the journalist Marco Ascione, which will be in bookstores starting tomorrow, published for Solferino. In the book, the former premier and former president of the EU Commission talks about himself, starting from his childhood years in Reggio Emilia with his large family, up to his transfer to Bologna for the university, and tackles the path of his political career

Bologna, 15 September 2021 – “A strange life, mine. I am from 1939. I belong to a generation game with the war, but then she was very lucky. They called me Romano because I was born on 9 August, the day of San Romano Martire. With so many children there began to be a shortage of names. To be precise, I was also baptized as Lorenzo because the next day, August 10, is San Lorenzo. I went well: Santa Chiara followed. In middle school I didn’t apply much, I liked playing football more. And, second, I was also sent back to English. After the third grade exam, the professors handed me a letter. It said: unsuitable for high school studies. I slipped it down a manhole, walking on the way home. It didn’t bother me, I just didn’t even consider it for a moment. Once in high school I took the pleasure of studying, perhaps too much “.

“I reached maturity with a very high average and was able to enjoy, as a reward for being ranked among the best matured in Emilia, a cruise in the Mediterranean offered by Rotary: obviously the first trip abroad of my life. still a feeling of gratitude towards my high school, whose professors were the true moral leaders of the city.

People with a very high culture. While teaching Greek or Latin they also spoke to us about history, politics and the foundations of society. We were less than twenty in our class and we always enjoyed each other, perhaps because there was never too much competition between us. In fact, more than sixty years after the final exams we still call each other regularly. When we can, we meet and the speeches resume with the normality of the past. High school was an extraordinary training for me, from all points of view, and I would very much like the school to return to being in the center of a city as it was then, beyond any rhetoric “.

(…)

“We were nine siblings, all in class ahead one year, all graduated well and in a hurry. All studying around the same rectangular table, in the apartment in via Toschi, in Reggio Emilia. With the anthologies and vocabularies of Latin and Greek sliding from side to side. The house where we lived for rent was always bought by the Communist Party: on the ground floor there were the headquarters of the Federation and the Circolo Gramsci. For a certain period of time I had been charged with paying the rent to Rino Serri, then a young party official, then Undersecretary for Foreign Affairs in my first government. I was a child and when I told him about it at Palazzo Chigi we laughed about it a lot. He couldn’t remember me, but I had him in mind “.

“A strange cohabitation with the PCI. From the window I watched the preparation of their demonstrations, which obviously in Reggio Emilia were frequent and well organized. Unforgettable the rehearsals for mourning at Stalin’s funeral. Dozens of boys repeated aloud, as in the Greek tragedies: “Stalin is not dead, Stalin is not dead, he is always alive for us and millions of red flags will be waved all over the world …” “. (… )

“One day Umberto Agnelli he said to me: “You, professor, use the Emilian accent as an instrument of power”. And I: “Doctor, do what you can” “(…)

“In Bologna I found a climate that is not easily reproducible in a different city. I have always remained in Bologna. All’Alma Mater all my teaching activity took place, the real guiding thread of my life. While in Rome they call me President and in the South Honorable, in Bologna they still call me Prof. Staying here was a happy choice that I have never regretted, despite the complication of keeping roots in one place when life continually takes you in. around the world. I believe that to preserve not only personal serenity, but also serenity in making decisions, it is essential to live a normal life, comparing yourself with those who know you as a person and not for the roles you have covered “.

“The places of power, by definition, influence the way you think and act and, little by little, they decide for you. Of course, you are not immune to these risks by keeping your home miles away, but it is it is easier to have moments of normality and not lose contact with reality. In short, it also takes time to breathe and in Bologna you can breathe well. A sacrosanct rule that has above all allowed my children, Giorgio and Antonio, to live a life regular, attending the neighborhood school, friends of the parish and playing basketball, a great Bolognese passion. At least in this respect I feel a bit conservative, but I am very pleased to see that, even after so many years, my grandchildren they attend the same schools and chat in the same way with their classmates, who in the meantime have become multiethnic “. (…)

“My wife was important for my education, at least as was the university. For fifty-two years we have been arguing, disagreeing and, almost always, converging”.

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