Italy's 150Th Anniversary: Commemorating the Past

12 Italy’s 150th annIversary: CommemoratIng the Past In a DIvideD Country John Foot and Samantha Owen On 17 March 2011, Italy celebrated its 150th anniversary. On that day in 1861, Victor Emmanuel II had become the first king of Italy. This date, however, marked only a formal moment of annexation. It was not a day of revolution but instead a bureaucratic (albeit highly symbolic) political unification. The date 17 March was designated as a national holiday on a one-off basis in 2011, and on that day flags were raised across Italy to celebrate the nation’s 150th birthday. The central event took place at a parliamentary session where the two houses heard a speech delivered by President Giorgio Napolitano. Official celebrations were also planned for many key places linked to the history of the unification process and Italy in general. In Rome, the sites for these ceremonies included Gianicolo Hill (where critical battles for independence had taken place in 1848), the Altar of the Fatherland (constructed for the fiftieth anniversary celebrations in 1911), and the Pantheon (where some of Italy’s monarchs are buried). Mimicking the long process of unification, the sesquicentennial commemorations, which began in 2010, continued throughout 2011, with further set pieces on 25 April and 2 June, and will be followed by a series of different and ongoing events until 2020. This chapter will look in some detail at Italy’s 150th anniversary commemorations from the point of view of political debate, national Italian Politics: From Berlusconi to Monti 27 (2012): 262–278 © Berghahn Books doi:10.3167/ip.2012.270115 Italy’s 150th Anniversary 263 identity, and divided or fractured memory. The commemorative cycle of events in 2011 served to highlight continuing discussions over the meaning of Italian national identity, the changing role of national sym- bols, and the presence and importance of regionalist and separatist movements in the North. The Lega Nord (LN, Northern League) openly challenged the commemorations during 2011 and, implicitly, the basis of the nation-state. It did this from a position of political power, at both the regional and national levels, with LN ministers in the central government until the November crisis. After comparisons with two previous commemoratory years, 1911 and 1961, which, we shall argue, were marked by conflict over the meaning of Italian unification and unity, we will discuss how the 2011 celebrations were similarly marked by considerable political disagreement over the content and form of these events. But the 2011 anniversary saw a different kind of battle take place: the sym- bols of Italy itself were challenged from within the very heart of the government by a powerful and well-organized political minority. Nonetheless, to the surprise of many (including the organizers), the 2011 celebrations saw widespread and sustained participation by Ital- ians across the peninsula and so proved to be a powerful moment of national unity at a time of considerable division. In some ways, this enthusiasm for the celebrations was a reaction to the activities of the LN (as was clear from the comments collected by journalists and by long-running campaigns over the use of the Italian flag) and to the deepening political crisis in Italy. Amid all this upheaval, the role of President Napolitano became increasingly central as the year progressed. It was Napolitano who led the celebrations at various key moments and who became increasingly identified with Italy itself. It could thus be argued that if 2011 was a battle between the nation and the anti-nation, it was Italy that came out as the winner. Before we deal with the specifics of 2011, however, we need to go back to those moments from the past. Other Anniversaries: From 1911 to 1961 In 1911, Italy celebrated its fiftieth anniversary amid great pomp and circumstance. Italy’s ruling elites saw the celebration as an opportunity to promote their understanding of how successful the Italian state had been in its attempt to “make Italians” and to present the Italian nation as a world leader, or at least as one of the stronger nation-states. In Rome, the Altar of the Fatherland—a huge marble memorial structure designed by Giuseppe Sacconi in the heart of the 264 John Foot and Samantha Owen capital—was a tribute to Victor Emmanuel II and a direct attempt to underline the importance of a new kind of religion, that of the nation, with the king as its figurehead. Hence, the memorial’s inscription, “Patriae Unitati Civium Liberati” (Nation Be United, Citizens Be Free) resonated with the new patriotic language of Roman imperialism. The monument was inaugurated on 4 June 1911 in front of the largest crowd of “Italians” that had ever formed in Rome for a civil celebration. Those attending included the royal family, the government, senior government officials, Risorgimento veterans, mayors from all over Italy, and schoolchildren. However, not all political par- ties and institutions were present: those absent from the festivities included socialists, republicans, and the Catholic Church. They chose not to attend because they believed that the unification of Italy—like the Altar of the Fatherland—was still incomplete.1 Similarly, in his analysis of the fiftieth anniversary events, the liberal philosopher Benedetto Croce criticized the direction taken by Giovanni Giolitti’s government. Croce claimed that Italy’s state of fragmentation per- sisted because “social unity” was being replaced by a new individu- alism that privileged self over public interest and created a situation in which the words “king,” “nation,” and “fatherland” did not hold a unifying meaning.2 Hence, despite the efforts of the celebration organizers to dis- guise it, and notwithstanding the pride engendered by its imperialist achievements, the Italy of 1911 remained a country with deep political and social problems, as well as regional fissures that threatened to tear it apart on a number of occasions. The structure of the state and the nation had been contested by many of those who had taken part in the Risorgimento. Moreover, anti-nationalist tendencies were a real force in Italian society, both on the left and in the South. The 1911 jubilee, therefore, was not so much about declaring the achievement of Ital- ian unity as it was about outlining what the government of the time believed would be the path to national unification. In short, Italy was still far from being “made.” In the late 1950s, the approaching centennial of Italian unification represented an opportunity for the post-war and post-fascist leader- ship to follow in the tradition established by previous national exhibitions by declaring that they were the leaders who could finally unite the nation and by using anniversary events to underline this ongoing success story.3 The first suggestion for a celebration was made early in 1956 by the former metalworker and partisan, Gioacchino Quarello, a Democrazia Cristiana (DC, Christian Democratic) sena- tor from Turin. Quarello proposed that, following in the tradition of 1911, Turin should host an Esposizione Internazionale del Lavoro (EIL, Italy’s 150th Anniversary 265 International Exhibition of Work) in the centennial year.4 Quarello argued that while 1911 was “the last great exhibition in a world that was about to die,” the 1961 celebrations would be “the first in a world that was about to be born.”5 In the end, it was decreed that the official celebrations, called Italia ’61, would be held in Turin. They would run from May to October 1961 and would comprise three exhibitions: historical, regional, and the EIL.6 The historical exhibition traced the development of liberal- ism on the peninsula up to the foundation of the modern nation-state and the naming of Rome as Italy’s capital. It included a final section on the Resistance, which was presented as a movement inspired by the ideals of the Risorgimento. The emphasis of the exhibition was on the foundational values that united Italy and appeared to flow from Turin. Any suggestion of violence or unrest in the unification process was removed or muted.7 The uneven effects of post-war development and the “economic miracle” were explained away in the regional exhibition through a phrase borrowed from the French Jesuit philosopher Pierre Teilhard de Chardin: “In any domain—whether it be the cells of a body, the mem- bers of a society, or the elements of a spiritual synthesis—union dif- ferentiates.”8 A new understanding of unity claimed that the aim was not to create the same level of socio-economic development across the nation but to achieve measured progress in all areas. Finally, the EIL was a massive exhibition on the subject “Man at Work.” It contained pavilion displays from 20 states and international organizations or institutions, including the Catholic Church, the Soviet Union, and the United States. As with the regional exhibition, there was a summary or unifying display in the center of the exhibition, and in this case it was the Italian contribution. Designed in this way, the EIL gave the firm impression that Italy was a European nation that embraced the principles of liberal capitalism and was building a thriving economy. Despite the high hopes for the Italia ’61 commemorations, the ambitious claims made in the exhibitions, and the gestures made toward inclusion, such as the establishment of a national organizing committee,9 the extent to which the centennial would act internally as a unifying event was questioned from the very beginning.

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