In remembrance of Aldo Moro, on the 110th anniversary of his birth, Calogero Mannino puts one theme at the centre of his reflection: the unity of Christian Democracy (Democrazia Cristiana, Dc). The former minister recalls the appeals that Moro repeatedly made to the party, at times with the tone of a father, always with a passion that, in his view, came through in his words. After the dissolution of the Dc, Mannino argues, those appeals appear even more significant today.
According to the former minister, Moro had grasped the warning signs of the difficulties awaiting the party. «It was as if he were aware» that, without staying united, the Christian Democrats would be «mown down», Mannino observes, recalling several episodes that in his view had already revealed how fragile the Dc’s position was.
The reflection then turns to the paths taken after the party’s demise. Mannino is critical both of those who believed the “Catholic-Communist crossroads” was the right way forward, and of those who were drawn in by the «Berlusconi siren song». These are choices, he says, that he still feels the need to question.
For Mannino, the end of the Italian People’s Party (Partito Popolare) had consequences that go beyond Italian politics: what disappeared, in his words, was «an axis of democratic balance in Europe». In support of this reading, he recalls the words attributed to Helmut Kohl, who saw in the Italian and German popular parties a force capable of holding democratic Europe together «from the Rhine to the Mediterranean».
The closing message is addressed to young people: study what happened in order to better understand the present. «Not out of resentment, but out of feeling», Mannino concludes.
