For almost six years Dario Franceschini continued to be involved in politics while living with Parkinson's. Phone calls, meetings, meetings. The diagnosis arrived in November 2020. Now the former Minister of Culture has decided to confide: "A terrible blow".
First, in 2014, there had been a heart attack, then some other ailments, archived as "accidents". This time it's different: "Parkinson's accompanies you forever", he says in an interview with Corriere della Sera, without transforming the illness into a leave of absence. "Parkinson's affects the body, not cognition."
Politics remains the arena of the lawyer from Ferrara: former secretary of the Democratic Party and four times minister, Franceschini has gone through congresses and governments, remaining one of the cornerstones of the Dem geography. Rarely a single man in command, much more often decisive in balances: 'weaver' is the definition that accompanies him. The disease, explains the senator who will turn 68 in October, has shifted the coordinates. "It eliminates personal ambitions" and takes away that "sense of invincibility" that politics tends to demand from those who practice it. The first instinct was to hide it. But Parkinson's can end up showing what one would like to keep away from eyes: it was his colleague Graziano Delrio, a doctor, who urged him to be examined, seeing him drag his feet. In the end, Franceschini chose to tell his story. "Don't isolate yourself, continue living", is the message addressed to the sick. "It's essential not to get discouraged, to wake up in the morning with something to accomplish."
A presence that colleagues gather. Matteo Renzi - with whom Franceschini shared battles and clashes - defines him as "the most lucid parliamentarian of all" and invites those who want to understand what will happen in the coming months to look at that "lawyer from Ferrara": "He will always be the one to deal the cards". A phrase that photographs a role that has remained intact: the name of Benigno Zaccagnini's ex-boyfriend, who grew up in the school of democratic Catholicism, returns promptly every time a game opens in the Democratic Party on leadership, alliances and primaries.
The choice to talk about the disease prompts a bipartisan embrace. The closeness and applause of the Democratic Party - from Chiara Braga to Enrico Letta - for the gesture of "courage and dignity" is accompanied by the personal stories of the opponents. Giuseppe Conte - who underwent an operation a few months ago - thanks him for a "lesson in courage, dignity and strength": before roles comes "man, with his small and large fragilities". Roberto Calderoli rewinds the tape to 2013, when he made his tumor public: "Talking about it in public helps to shine a media spotlight on research" and can give strength, observes the Northern League minister, to those facing the same battle. He also mentions the dem senator Franco Mirabelli, who talked about living with ALS. Carlo Calenda instead returns to his grandfather, the director Luigi Comencini, who was struck early by Parkinson's and capable of making films until late in life. His friend and party companion Goffredo Bettini then returns to the political Franceschini: his intelligence, he underlines, "is as useful as bread".
It is not the first time that a diagnosis changes the pace of a career without interrupting it. In 2015 Emma Bonino announced that she had lung cancer, making it clear that she would not leave: "You cannot resign from a political passion". "I don't give up, I continue to live, to be there", says Franceschini. With a more disenchanted look at the behind the scenes of the wide field: once upon a time he got angry when they attributed a line to him that wasn't his, today "I smile and am not interested".
The reactions
"Dario Franceschini is a great politician. Explaining a difficult health condition is an act of honesty and courage. His intelligence, as long as he wants it, serves as bread and butter to the PD and to Italian democracy. We have the obligation to know how to use it." Thus with a post on Facebook, Goffredo Bettini (national leader of the Democratic Party and editorial director of the Rinascita magazine) comments on Franceschini's interview, wishing "his dear friend infinite strength".
"I read the interview with Dario Franceschini in the Corriere della Sera in one go. It's one of those interviews that remain", writes Sandro Ruotolo, MEP of the Democratic Party and head of information in the national secretariat, on social media. "There is no pietism - he continues - in these two pages. There is life. Recognizing one's fragility does not mean being weaker. Sometimes it requires much more courage than showing oneself strong. A life lesson. And also a good lesson for politics".
"Thank you Dario for this priceless lesson of courage, dignity and strength, in which there is not even a pinch of self-irony and serene disenchantment that softens the pain and suffering. Your interview enriches us all and reminds us that before the role, the social position, the tasks there is the man with his small and large fragilities", says the M5s leader, Giuseppe Conte.
"There are moments in which talking about one's fragility becomes a gesture of great strength. And perhaps, precisely through those words, someone who is going through the same experience will be able to feel less alone. Thank you Dario", says PD deputy Roberto Speranza.
"It's a very personal but also very political interview", comments another former minister and PD representative, Andrea Orlando. "Current in a historical moment that dehumanizes and seems to have lost this awareness. Thanks Dario".
"I want to send an affectionate hug to my friend Dario, who today with dignity and courage made his illness public", says Angelo Bonelli, Avs parliamentarian and co-spokesperson for Green Europe. "His invitation not to isolate himself concerns us all: no one must be left alone in their illness. I send a strong and affectionate hug to Dario, Michela and his daughters. Go Dario!".
