Ten years after his death, the Senate remembers Carlo Azegge Carlo Azeglio Ciampi as an institutional and pro-European figure

Ten years after his death, the Senate returns to remember Carlo Azeglio Ciampi. A life in the institutions: president of the Republic, prime minister, governor of the Bank of Italy, minister and above all a convinced pro-European. A memory, the one outlined in the ceremony at Palazzo Madama, which was also attended by the Head of State Sergio Mattarella as well as the presidents of the two branches of Parliament, peppered with episodes of personal life and real political lessons.

Doing the honors is Ignazio La Russa who alternates among others with Pier Ferdinando Casini and Giuliano Amato in remembering the figure of Ciampi. A special tribute is also paid to his wife, Mrs. Franca, connected to the Zuccari room.

Around the word homeland, the president of Palazzo Madama concentrates the memory of the former governor of Bank of Italy: "Homeland in his conception was no longer an old word, buried by time", underlines La Russa who adds: "Homeland returned to being a concept, a value that encompassed a community, a common history, a set of rights and duties, a responsibility towards future generations".

Pier Ferdinando Casini focuses on the value that Ciampi attributed to the institutions, recalling some passages of the speech that the former head of state addressed to parliamentarians when he assumed leadership of the government. Ciampi, observes Casini, "addressed parliamentarians as representatives of the Nation, clarifying that his government would not be a government above Parliament, but a government before Parliament. The difference was fundamental. For Ciampi no technical expertise, however high, could replace democratic legitimation".

Instead, Giuliano Amato's memory starts from the bond of friendship "A bond - he recalls - born almost by chance as members of the Chiarelli commission for the reorganization of participation. We began to create a tandem: a friendship which in part the institutional places contributed to developing and in part" also developed naturally "as a friendship between couples" with the wives Diana and Franca and "I must say that Franca is not someone who played a role when in public she was frank and irreverent, Franca is frank and irreverent."

Pierluigi Ciocca, vice president of the Bank of Italy, recalled that when Ciampi was called for the job he told him 'We are bankers of Italy, not politicians' and added "I was wrong". Finally, Melina Decaro with him at Palazzo Chigi as a legislative member spoke of his "competence, dedication, generosity and passion" and said that "on his table there was the Constitution, the dictionary and the dictionary of synonyms and antonyms". "Ciampi asked me - he recalled - how many times the word Republic is in the Constitution: 70 times, Nation 12, homeland 2 and State 51. "The numbers - said Ciampi have a political meaning".