My great American teacher and friend Joseph LaPalombara , for many years president of political science at Yale and dean of political scientists, having the same age as President Napolitano (96 years old), of whom he has always been a great friend, always very lucid and always at ‘opera, wrote a well-motivated article on these columns in which he stated that the best possible candidate for the Quirinale would be Giuliano Amato.
Beloved and man of great stature, very fine jurist and politician of great experience to whom all my esteem and respect go. Personally, for once, I feel instead of expressing a preference different from that of my American teacher (with whom we also wrote a nice four-handed book “United States
Italy and the USA in comparison “, Rubbettino).
After long reflections, I thought that, in light of the current political framework and the variables on the ground, the best candidate could be Gianni Letta . I fear that when he reads this article he will take away my greeting. But because I take the liberty of putting forward this option
Gianni Letta, in recent days, to the mortuary of a great Italian and pro-European like David Sassoliand failed, once and for all, to his delivery of silence. In fact, he is one of the best “men of silence”, as are the majority of civil servants, never gives interviews and does not contribute in the least to the declarations and the rampant chatter. Stimulated by a journalist, coming out of that funeral home he declared: “The last contribution that David made to this country was the choral, heartfelt and moved participation around his death. The atmosphere that reigned in Parliament when it was commemorated was one of serenity and harmony, of the desire of all parties to look to the interests of the country and not to partisan interests. If with the same climate the great electors proceeded to the election of the President of the Republic, David would have a great merit ”.
Obviously, interpretations have flourished, also due to the fact that Gianni Letta is Berlusconi’s super advisor and this statement seemed to go against the trend followed by Berlusconi, today at least a pre-candidate for the Quirinale. This courageous declaration that centers what should be the best way to elect a Head of State highlights all the true institutional personality of Gianni Letta.
Despite the link with Berlusconi, he has always distinguished himself as a man of public silence but also of confidential dialogue with all the forces and the most authoritative exponents of the center-left. He has never supported sectarian positions and seems to be one of the most “timid” in this adventure of Silvio Berlusconi’s candidacy for the Quirinale, because he is used to looking at the interests of the country and I think he fears that “divisiveness” that has done so much harm to the country, being clear to him that a President of the Republic must be a man who unites rather than divides.
Despite this, there has not been the slightest break with Berlusconi, only the affirmation of being, in the light of what is perhaps his most proper dimension, an anomalous civil servant. I was head of cabinet and one of the coordinators of the conference of heads of cabinet during the 2001-2006 legislature and, although the heads of the cabinet are not required to participate in the pre-council of ministers, I did not lose almost none of those always masterfully led by Gianni Read.
The older colleagues told me that, although he certainly did not appear as a distinguished jurist, he was even better than Giuliano Amato, a very fine jurist, (in the end both are subtle doctors) at presiding over the pre-councils of ministers, because he embodied his role as Undersecretary of the Prime Minister as a service to the Republic. Furthermore, he has never succumbed to any sectarianism and if a criticism was shown to him by exponents of the center-right, especially forces other than Forza Italia, it was that of taking into account too often the reasons for the opposition when the center-right is in government or vice versa. when it was the center-right that was in opposition. Because Letta is a man who unites and does not divide and has shown that bit of juridical wisdom that is required of a President of the Republic when he himself was Undersecretary.
He also knows perfectly the game of political forces and is a man of the many relationships and dialogues without any fuss. When I read that the choice that Salvini keeps in his pocket as a second hypothesis after those of Berlusconi and Letizia Moratti , despite having esteem for a woman of great authority and value like Letizia Moratti, I always thought that an end is required of a President of the Republic political sensitivity and a fine knowledge of the political game that someone like Gianni Letta has much more than Moratti. If it weren’t for the political forces to find a tendentially unitary agreement on Mario Draghi, therefore, and to men of silence and to men of institutions, such as Gianni Letta, that we should think.
Obviously, he would never stand as a candidate and would never make a disgrace to Berlusconi, given, among other things, that he never thought, despite the many offers, to even run for parliament. If this were not the case, I could, as my friend Lamberto Dini indicated between the lines , think of a Casini presidency, which has all the qualities of institutional sensitivity and political knowledge and political game, having also been president of the Chamber, but I think you find hostility in the center-right since he was elected on the lists of the Democratic Party.
I believe, in fact, that, I repeat, if a unitary agreement on Draghi is not found, the scheme to be followed to respect the political balance in place is the one that the President of the Republic should be indicated by the center-right which tends to be a majority in Parliament and identified in a man who can find, especially from the fourth vote onwards, consensus even in the center-left. I apologize to Gianni Letta for having made this sort of little outing since he is certainly not the man who thinks of running for institutional roles, given that he has always refused any type of election in Parliament.
