Democracy with the face of peace
by Carlo Ossola
When the Republic was born eighty years ago, it had no recognised face, no symbol of its own to identify it collectively. The main civil monuments in our cities recalled the 19th century, the birth of united Italia and its heroes, from Garibaldi to Mazzini to Victor Emmanuel II, of whom the Vittoriano - whose inauguration took place on the 50th anniversary of the Unification of Italy, 1911 - was the last shared symbol.
The end of fascism and at the same time of the monarchy left the new state structure with a collective memory devoid of strong identity emblems. It had to justify, after monarchies, empires, principalities and duchies, its own supremacy and resorted - at least in the most widespread public images - to the medieval origins of the republics that marked the country's development: postage stamps were printed in 1946 evoking, in particular, the Republic of Amalfi, those of Lucca, Florence and Pisa, each of which was represented by its most significant building, from the cathedrals of Amalfi and Lucca to Palazzo Vecchio in Florence; only the Republic of Siena was illustrated with a detail of Ambrogio Lorenzetti's Allegory of Good Government, in the Peace Room of the palace of the Council of Nine of the Republic of Siena, with the eponymous emblem of the room, namely Peace.
She is not, that calm maiden, a proud coryphée, like the French 'Marianne', of the Triomphe de la République, but rather a thoughtful guardian of the olive tree of concord, the fruit of Good Government, a sister of the Magnanimity of which he who is called to govern must be prodigal; peace promised 'to men of good will' and a young emblem of rediscovered reconciliation:
Thus, with wise foresight, the newly founded Republic was able to represent itself in Peace, preceding the core values of the next Constitution:
"Art. 11. Italia shall repudiate war as an instrument of offence against the freedom of other peoples and as a means of settling international disputes; it shall consent, on equal terms with other States, to the limitations of sovereignty necessary for an order that ensures peace and justice among Nations; it shall promote and favour international organisations directed to this end".
