The absence of the senators Pillon and Siri, and thus that of the deputy Micheli, as indeed of all the others who have deserted, is not noticeable. The masks on the faces do not reveal everything; the eyes say something and suggest a certain concentration. Yes, of course, there are those who trade with the smartphone, but it is not that serious, or at least: the humans of the twenty-first century are very largely put like this, take it or leave it. That an even transversal majority was really excited by Zelensky’s words is possible, it is realistic, although his fifteen-minute speech had more formal and therefore symbolic value than substantive. Skillfully, the Ukrainian president shapes his words on the audience, puts the accent on this or that reference so that the bridge with the listeners is more stable.
But it is certainly not today’s words that make the difference, that determine something significant. The point is another, and even goes beyond the possible allergies of senators Pillon and Siri, of deputy Micheli, of the three hundred absent and of all legitimately skeptics. If I limit myself to studying the intensity with which an assembly that has political power can come together, I think a very simple thing. I think that same assembly can shirk its responsibilities, trade its power for personal advantage or pension insurance; I think that someone, in that same assembly, can wave slices of mortadella (it happened), indulge in pathetic dramas, ignore the minimum parameters of respect, good taste, common sense, I think all this, yes, but I also think: the stakes, which often to the most disheartened citizens seem derisory or poorly managed, more superficial than concrete, can really be a question of life or death. In other words: what does a political class do? Even when it collapses into inertia, when it extinguishes only apparent reform processes, even when the honorable butts warm the seat and little more, there is always and in any case, at the bottom, of that gathering in a classroom a capital stake. The Italian or English parliament gathered to listen to Zelensky, after all, and beyond any outcome, they remind us of this. That political choices have effects on the lives even of those who do not believe it possible; that authentic politics is always a matter of life or death