Mirella Parachini, Pannella's companion: 'Cross-party support for a plaque in Piazza Navona'
The historical companion of the radical leader who died ten years ago relaunches the initiative to remember one of the great protagonists of Italian politics
"The idea of naming a plaque in Piazza Navona after Marco Pannella is an initiative that has immediately gathered transversal support and which I trust will be successful. The signals from the municipal administration are positive. The affection and enthusiasm that has been kindled around this idea has moved me.
Mirella Parachini, a gynaecologist and historical companion of the Radical leader, who would have been 96 years old on 2 May 2026, keeps alive the memory of what was an undisputed protagonist of Italian politics, to whom Il Sole 24 Ore has dedicated a video podcast 10 years after his death. And the names of the signatories of the appeal (from Vittorio Feltri to Fausto Bertinotti, from Gianfranco Fini to Achille Occhetto, from Don Luigi Ciotti to Vasco Rossi) are there to testify to a unique capacity for dialogue beyond any fence, connecting seemingly irreconcilable worlds.
Dr. Parachini why a plaque for Pannella in Piazza Navona?
Because it is a square that has been the protagonist of so many of Marco Pannella's and the Radical Party's battles, starting with the party on the night of 12 May 1974 for the victory in the divorce referendum and the demonstration to collect signatures for new abrogative referendums after which Giorgiana Masi was killed.
This is not the only initiative. What is the status of the other to dedicate a place in the city to Pannella?
A first attempt was made immediately after his death, but it ran aground in the face of the law requiring ten years after death for toponymy. By now the decade is running out. And the councillor for Culture of the Municipality of Rome, Massimiliano Smeriglio, recently announced, as part of a package of new intitiations, that to Marco Pannella of a place adjacent to the Rebibbia prison, where family members wait before being allowed to enter for visits. This is also a symbolic place of Pannella's battles to defend the rights of prisoners and to improve living conditions in Italian prisons.
Everyone remembers Pannella's fasts and referendum battles for abortion and divorce. What do you think is his most current and important legacy?
I think Radio Radicale. Pannella was the first to conceive the idea of connecting the world of institutional politics with ordinary people. And he succeeded in making people feel protagonists in the political life of the country through the instrument of the referendum. Radical Radio played a pioneering role even though today social media have revolutionised the scenario.
