Anyone who dedicates at least part of their energies to a civil passion grows with their living myths of reference. Figures of tall stature, strong with an experience and an intelligence of things that are considered out of the ordinary and, in any case, very precious to see their path continuously inspired. They can be men or women who know each other personally or who admire and listen to each other with unique, special attention. This was Ugo Intini for me, as I believe he was for many young socialists of the latest generation. It is thus, therefore, that with his death I lose a point of view on politics that for me had no equal.
I was then fortunate enough to establish a personal relationship with him in 2016, when his generosity and wisdom helped some of my university research on Avanti! during the years of the Great War. From that moment on, the exchanges of opinions on politics never stopped. I was always amazed and at the same time intimidated by the comparison with him: I admired his curiosity towards the point of view of a young socialist, but I always feared my insufficiency in the quality of what I could offer to the discourse. This generosity of his was constantly confirmed in his support for every initiative we wanted to propose in the area. On all these occasions, he never failed to bring, with his presence, the substantial contribution that he has always ensured to the socialist community, whether that of the delegates gathered at the congress, whether that of the leaders in the national direction, whether that of groups, even small, of members who participated in socialist demonstrations in any province of Italy.
The reactions of these days have demonstrated the great admiration towards his figure, both political and human. But what was the reason for such great and unanimous esteem? I think the characteristic feature was the fact that he was recognized as a true example of intelligence. An intelligence of the mind, which led him to a lucid and penetrating analysis of politics and society, to an incessant intellectual curiosity, to one of the most respectable journalistic and essayistic productions in Italy, and an intelligence of the spirit, which characterized his the elegant sobriety, the respect of his companions and adversaries, his attachment to the socialist ideal and his community, to which he dedicated all his strength. And he has demonstrated this in particular in the last thirty years, when, after the end of the historic PSI, he set himself the mission of not making the end of socialist culture in Italy coincide with it. It was he and a few others who exercised such coherence and expressed such a profession of faith since the mid-1990s, too few.
He felt a particular pleasure and you could see a clear emotion in his gaze when he shared, with his younger classmates, lessons, episodes, stories that, when he was a very young editor at Avanti!, Nenni himself had passed on to him. It is precisely with this photo that I want to remember him. Socialism, an idea and a story that never ends, also thanks to Ugo Intini.