Today in France is National Day, the first to be celebrated after the horrible year of the health crisis. It is tradition that on the occasion of the anniversary of the Storming of the Bastille (precisely the July 14 1789) an imposing military demonstration takes place along the Champs Elisés in the presence of the country's highest authorities, between two wings of cheering crowds and with tricolor flags in every corner.
It will be interesting to see the initiatives organized this year, which will take place a few hours after the announcement of the turn of the screw that President Macron intends to give regarding vaccinations, assuming the constraint of the relative certification for access to museums and other public places.
July 14, however, is an anniversary that belongs not only to Europe but to the whole free world, because it is the protest gesture of the Parisian sans-culottes that started the French Revolution, whose founding principles of freedom, égalité, fraternityand have become part of the basic rules of modern democracies. It is said that when - only in the evening - the assault on the Fortress was communicated to Louis XVI, the sovereign (who had written "rien" in his diary with reference to that historic day) had asked if it was a revolt. He was answered by the dignitary: “No Sire. It's a revolution."
It is no coincidence that absolute power was running out of time: on 26 August of the same year the law was approved Declaration of the rights of man and of the citizen. The fortress had been inside the city for centuries and had represented the symbol of the abuses of Absolutism, as a prison for the opponents or enemies of the Crown completely subject to any kind of arbitrariness. Together with the criminals, many famous people found "hospitality" (it is said, however, that detention took into account rank) such as Voltaire in the 1717, the Marquis de Sade, Cagliosto. Fouquet and Mirabeau.
In the Bastille it arose the legend of the so-called Iron Mask, the brother of the sovereign secretly locked up in that prison and forced to wear a mask of that metal on his face, so that he would not be recognized. In the last century cinematography has been very busy telling this dark story. In truth, when it was attacked, the Bastille was already in disuse (like so many barracks in Italy). There was even a demolition project which – like many of our public works – had not become operational, because the State was unable to meet the costs. There were, however, some weapons; and this was the goal of the insurgents which was partially achieved. As for the prisoners, it seems that there were only seven and that they were not political prisoners of particular importance. There was a firefight, with dead and heads on pikes. But the garrison did not spend too much on the defense of the fortress, despite the zeal of their commander.
As we are led to believe, the anniversary of July 14th was not born in conjunction with the Presa. After fluctuating events related to political events, the holiday was established in 1880 at the time of the Third Republic. In place of the fortress today is a square, Place de la Bastille, which bears at its center the July Column inaugurated in 1840, commemorating the fall of Charles X and the beginning of the monarchy of Louis-Philippe.
For the writer there is another July 14 that deserves to be remembered. Unfortunately a glorious page of history does not recur, but an event of that ''bad justice'' which has poisoned the wells of civil life. At the dawn of July 14 2008 was being arrested Ottaviano Del Turco. His legal case went on for a decade. The Courts that examined the case have, in practice, '' leafed through the daisy '' of the crimes of which he was accused: corruption, extortion, fraud, forgery and criminal association. And of course, each torn ''petal'' corresponded to a reduction in the sentence.
In the first instance, Del Turco was convicted at nine years and six months. In the second-degree trial, 21 episodes of bestowal out of 26 were removed, and the sentence was more than halved: four years. After a referral to another Court and a new judgment, the Cassation finally reduced the prison sentence to three years and eleven months, the disqualification from public office from lifelong to five years, while it canceled the criminal association.
For the former president of the Abruzzo Region (Ottaviano had previously been assistant general secretary of the CGIL, national and European parliamentarian, Minister of the Republic) it was not possible – Piercamillo Davigo would say – to “get away with it” completely. The last petal remained attached to the corolla: Del Turco was found guilty of "undue induction to give or promise benefits" and definitively sentenced. Induction is a newly minted crime, introduced by the Severino law in 2012, to punish extortion (the public official or the person in charge of a public service who requires a donation) even when there is no threat or violence. At the time of the events attributed to Octavian this crime was not yet foreseen.
