The exhibition "The places and words of Enrico Berlinguer" will also arrive in Sardinia, which has just ended with much acclaim and over 65 thousand visitors at the Mattatoio in Rome. The historian Alexander Hobel, who has been teaching contemporary history at the University of Sassari for a few days, oversaw the project together with Gregorio Sorgonà and Alessandro D'Onofrio. 2024 has a special meaning. It marks the 50th anniversary of the death of the architect of the rift with Moscow and of an innovative policy that marked the history of the left in Italy and Europe. «On 11 June – explains Hobel – the exhibition will be in Bologna. After the summer she will be transferred to Naples, Turin, Florence. I think it will then land in Sardinia. From the exhibition, particularly in the first section dedicated to affections, the very strong sentimental bond between Berlinguer and his land emerges. There are photos and images that the Sardinian public will see with great pleasure."

The outcome of the exhibition is very positive. Did you expect this result?

“It shows that there is regret for the high politics that Enrico Berlinguer represents. Politics as a disinterested and useful commitment to profoundly transform society and the state. The success of the exhibition refers to the need, more than ever felt, for a high and transformative politics. Then there is the fascination of the figure of the leader of the Communist Party for his way of interpreting leadership and political militancy. In an interview Berlinguer says: I didn't choose a political career, I chose politics as a commitment, as militancy, as a passion. In him there is always a coherence between words and deeds, words and behaviors.

Young people did not remain indifferent. It is one of the most important aspects

Many young people visited the exhibition. There is a significant fact: Berlinguer is present on social media through images and videos. I think of the last tragic rally, in Padua, 7 June 1984. Heartbreaking but also heroic images for the effort that was made until the end to complete the intervention. Many young people know what Berlinguer did, they are aware of what he did for the country. We saw young people and very young people together with adults, parents, uncles and grandparents, but also alone. Sometimes even with teachers. It means that the latest generations, those now appearing on the scene of public life, need to find high role models. Even in a different context, Berlinguer's example can still say something.

What messages did visitors leave?

We found comments from young people who wrote: I didn't know you, I didn't live through your era, but I miss you. The exhibition took me into a world that I miss. I believe this lack is not a feeling of simple nostalgia for those times, but may be a sign of the fact that there is a need to build something with new tools of political participation and transformation of reality. There are signs that confirm that young people are not passive or inert. I think about the

mobilization for peace, for the relaunch of universities and public schools, for women's rights, for environmental issues.

What does Berlinguer say to girls and boys?

Some themes for which young people are mobilizing are themes that we find mentioned in Berlinguer's elaboration: the relationship between the north and south of the world, the question of the development model, peace, austerity as a lever for change, the environmental question, the women's revolution. It is a modern and very current thought.

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