"Mameli's Anthem Must Become Part of the Constitution": The Center-Right's Battle
A bill from the Italian Communist Party (FdI) is in the Senate to equate it with the Italian flag. La Russa: "It's the pride of being Italian."
The cover of the 1860 edition of Goffredo Mameli's "Canto degli Italiani" (ANSA/Wikipedia)
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Not just an anthem, but the "Song of the Italians" that deserves a place in the Constitution, and not just an ordinary law like the 2017 one that consecrated it as the national anthem. A few words to pay tribute to those who wrote the lyrics and those who set them to music. Reviving Goffredo Mameli's song is the center-right, aiming to close out the legislature with a specific bill and promoting it at a conference in the Senate.
On the same day, Roberto Vannacci praises the song but warns that it isn't taught in schools, drawing on his daughter's experience: "She's 14 and hasn't learned it in school yet," says the FnV leader. Assigned to the Senate, the bill has the signatures of about twenty FdI parliamentarians, a few scattered majority allies (Lega's Garavaglia, FI's Zanettin, and civic representative Michaela Biancofiore), and, the only one from the opposition, Democratic Party member Walter Verini. This signature is to accommodate the request of FdI Senator Campione, Verini explains. He believes that the national anthem is "unifying and therefore natural to codify it in the Constitution," perhaps even adding the European anthem.
The bill amends Article 12 of the Constitution, adding the song's credits to the Tricolore's characteristics: "It is the 'Song of the Italians,' with lyrics by Goffredo Mameli and music by Michele Novaro," reads the bill's sole article. The goal, according to Senator Campione, is to overcome "an evident asymmetry" between the flag and the anthem, giving the latter a constitutional status it currently lacks. The bill is before the Constitutional Affairs Committee, and possible amendments are expected by Thursday.
For Education Minister Giuseppe Valditara, Mameli's anthem "is the popular spark of the revolution called the Risorgimento," which resurfaced "during the partisan struggle, when it gained traction among members of the National Liberation Committee (CLN) who aspired to a free and democratic Italy." Senate President Ignazio La Russa also supported the hymn: the anthem in the Constitution "reaffirms the pride of our Italian identity, protects historical memory, and entrusts its civic and moral legacy to future generations."
(Unioneonline)
