Judicial errors, suburbs, Roma: the 80 'Days' at the Chambers

Between public holidays, civil holidays and celebratory days, the calendar is full of anniversaries. However, more dates could be added to the list if some of the proposals presented by parliamentarians are approved: about 80 since the beginning of the legislature (some are re-propositions of texts that 'lapsed' at the end of the previous one), although net of the 'duplicates' the count is reduced to about fifty. Among the latest proposals is the one announced by Avs MP Devis Dori for the establishment of a day of remembrance of the genocide of the Roma during World War II and the text arrived at the end of May by Dario Giagoni (Chamber, League) in memory of the victims of forest fires.

There are proposals already halfway through, driven by the consensus of all political parties: this is the case of the National Day of Urban Suburbs (first signatory Alessandro Battilocchio, Forza Italia), approved by the Chamber with a unanimous vote and now in the Senate: the date chosen is 24 June, the same date on which in 2014 Fortuna Loffredo, a six-year-old girl from the Parco Verde in Caivano, was killed by her mother's ex-partner, thrown from the eighth floor of the building where she lived because she had rebelled against yet another sexual assault. Reversed path (dismissed in Palazzo Madama, waiting to be dealt with in Montecitorio) for the National Day of Wonder, a bill proposed by the League (first signatory Daisy Pirovano) and signed by all the parliamentary groups "in order to raise awareness of the sufferings and make known the hardships of children living in war", over 420 million according to some estimates, and "to reflect on the fundamental value of the right to wonder in the lives of children and adults". The project is inspired by the work of Marco Rodari, Knight of the Republic for his commitment as a war-volunteer clown. The day will be celebrated on the second Sunday of October each year.

First parliamentary passage (dating back, however, to a year ago) also for the proposal of a day for the right to fun in safety, signed by Senator Marco Croatti of the M5S and set for 8 December (on Immaculate Conception Day in 2018, six people died in a discotheque in Corinaldo, in the province of Ancona). Palazzo Madama also gave its green light to the proposal to establish a veterinary prevention day (25 January) put forward by Maria Cristina Cantù (League), which is being examined by the Social Affairs Committee in Montecitorio.

At the moment, only two proposals have become law: the one for Agriculture Day (second Sunday in November) wanted by the League (Giorgio Maria Bergesio) and the text restoring National Unity and Armed Forces Day (4 November) that has Fi Senator Maurizio Gasparri as its first signatory. However, the leader of the Azzurri group in Palazzo Madama has presented two other proposals to introduce new celebrations. The most recent one (the examination has not started) is the Day to be dedicated to the memory of the 'marocchinate', the women of central-southern Italy who were victims of violence perpetrated by the colonial soldiers framed in the French Expeditionary Corps in Italy during the last period of the Second World War. A dramatic page (recounted by Alberto Moravia in his novel 'La Ciociara' and later by Vittorio De Sica in the film of the same title) to which Fdi senator Andrea De Priamo also proposed dedicating 18 May. These texts are part of a group of proposals aimed at recalling facts and episodes that occurred during the Second World War. Such as the one by Giorgio Mulè, Fi deputy and vice-president of the Chamber of Deputies, which proposes to establish the 'Day of Italian internees in German concentration camps' to be celebrated on 20 September: on that very date in 1943 'the Nazi regime, in disregard of international law, changed the status of Italian soldiers from prisoners of war to "military internees", which represented the largest group of Italians forcibly detained in Germany during the war. The proposal received the unanimous OK of the Defence Commission the day before yesterday. Perhaps a lesser-known episode is that of the 446 Italians interned and deported from the United Kingdom for war reasons, who died in the shipwreck of the British steamer Arandora Star, torpedoed by a German navy unit in the Atlantic Ocean on 2 July 1940: Fdi deputy Vincenzo Amich (Fdi) recently proposed dedicating a day to them.

Then there are multiple proposals on the same theme. The Day of Unborn Life is found in four texts, all from centre-right exponents. One is still by Gasparri, the other three bear the signature of Fdi Senator Isabella Rauti, centrist MP Lorenzo Cesa and MP Maria Carolina Varchi (Fdi).