Farewell to Giorgio Sganga, politics at the service of the category

Giorgio Sganga, 82, a chartered accountant, who passed away on Wednesday night in his hometown of Paola, was a leading figure in professional politics. He came from a middle-class family committed to the professions, a privilege in a land, the province of Cosenza, that certainly helped him in his career. Yet, political passion, categorical passion pushed his commitment well beyond his office as a chartered accountant and well beyond the positions of responsibility connected to knowledge and professional entanglements. An outspoken and tenacious character, capable of weaving deep relationships, he has committed himself to categorical politics certainly as an outlet for personal ambitions but also as a chance to write a professional history of collective opportunities. It is a dimension that emerges clearly in one of his legacies, 'Una storia italiana' (An Italian History), the book-diary written in 2023 in which he gives an account - also with the testimonies of other protagonists of the history of chartered accountants - of the evolution of the profession, of the most important choices, such as the unification with accountants. A stage, that of the unification of the two Albi, that beyond the pressures of Politics (for once, Politics) proved to be the ability of the professional bodies to meet a goal that responded to rationalisation logics, but also to a prospect of reforming development, which the professions needed in the Italy that was to change. And it is precisely this combination - stories, memories, Giorgio Sganga's protagonism, but also the awareness of having to trigger a process to design the collective future - that is the book's hallmark.

Giving an account of Giorgio Sganga's assignments and cursus honorum risks circumscribing his personality and commitment in a series of offices, which are important but do not convey the portrait of the man. Among other things, he was founder of the Ordine di Paola, councillor and treasurer of the National Council, and president of the National Study Foundation.

Giorgio Sganga - and this is the legacy for the friends with whom he shared his last years of passion for professional politics - can be known, at least in part, in his bond with Claudio Siciliotti, former president of the National Council. From political ally, Giorgio Sganga turned into his opponent. The two would meet again a few years later, at the end of a painful and no-holds-barred judicial affair. The admission of their respective responsibilities opened up the joint adventure of their last public engagements, the 'Caffè delle idee', a category culture club. Siciliotti testified yesterday how 'a great friendship can also flourish from a conflict, which does not necessarily have to end with a winner and a loser but with the recognition of each other's reasons'.

Giorgio Sganga's funeral will take place on Thursday 21 October in Paola, in the Church of the S.S. Rosario (at 9.30 a.m. the cortege will start from the funeral home in via San Rocco 67).

Yesterday, the president of the National Council Elbano de Nuccio also commented on social media. 'With the passing of Giorgio Sganga, our category loses a figure who marked an era.