It's 4 in the morning. Carlo, his son, tells me that Umberto didn't make it. And I think that, in the meantime, we cannot keep silent here who and what he was - for me and for many - Umberto Minopoli. Then it will be necessary to talk about it properly, in a more appropriate way, once the deluge of pain has subsided.
Umberto was the best. I've known him since we were both 15 or 16 and I only heard about him. We attended nearby schools (the Genovesi and the Vittorio Emanuele), and among us, Genoese sick with extremism, we whispered that a few hundred meters away there was a short, curly-haired boy who alone stood up to the groups, managing to to impose himself in the fiery assemblies with rational and pointed arguments. He was argumentative, passionate, tenacious. It went against the tide. Then as after, for the rest of his life.
When I stopped being an extremist, I signed up foryouth organization of the PCI, of which he he became, in Naples, secretary. When, to name one, as a member of his secretariat, one day I began to ask him for a more committed and lofty debate on the destiny of our movement, not just on the card count, he niched for a while, annoyed by what appeared to be mass questioning his authority, then he laid us all down with a kilometric report in which he outlined the glorious future of our movement, starting with the Bretton Woods agreements and ending with the main political nodes of Italy, which he slammed us on the table with arrogance, always as to say “as much as you want to know, you…”.
He was the best when he was called to Rome, in the national secretariat of the Fgci, where I followed him like a toy soldier, and together we stood up to the Romans who were pursuing the XNUMX-year-olds, while we wanted to be communists yes, but operational and concrete (we were defined as right wing, and we didn't feel it as an offense...). It was him to write – at 22, 23 years old – 285, a law on youth employment which is still remembered as one of the – few – positive results of the presence of the PCI in the government majority.
He was the best when he returned to Naples, to the party. Appreciated by everyone, especially by Giorgio Napolitano and Gerardo Chiaromonte, with whom we spent intimate and pleasant evenings. He spoke to them without shyness, I mostly listened and said I was lucky to be friends with the best of all the young lions of the PCI.
The best he did not become secretary of the PCI in Naplesjust because he was the best. On his presumptuous skill, of course - the small logic of currents and apparatus prevailed on several occasions, preventing him from leading the party in the city with which he had developed - he was born in Pozzuoli - an unreasonable and carnal relationship.
When, rejected by Naples (the concept is strong, but that's what it was about), the best moved to Botteghe Oscure, the elders of the building vied with each other to keep it with them. And where did you find someone capable of working on dossiers, on laws, who at the same time had political acumen and culture to spare? In those years - with the left approaching the government - thus began a kind of intensive exploitation of the best, who began to shuttle between secondary positions in the party and secretarial ministries, before fulfilling managerial roles outside politics, of which - I tell you this for sure - he never fell in love. His love for him, never requited properly, was politics.
For this the best, in recent years, he has begun to deal with science, astronomy, physics. He was looking for substitutes for politics, thus launching himself into sensational intellectual enterprises without contempt of danger, gaining an indisputable preparation in fields that he had never explored. He was the best until the end. Only with his body he wasn't good. And so, a few hours ago, he left us.
as to family, he loved her with a full, exclusive, jealous, possessive, even blind love. Carmela met her as a boy, became the very solid and intelligent life partner, and has always stood up to him with wisdom, rough tenderness and pride. James e Carlo they have been his untouchable jewels: it won't be easy to survive the best, but they will make it.
Now we are here in Milan, Francesco Izzo and I, the mutual friend who adhered with infinite generosity to all his requests, who tried to put his life in order, and we cry and laugh remembering the evenings spent together, the deadly teasing that we bounced back, the love that we exchanged. In a few hours we will proceed with the bureaucratic procedures, to bring Umberto to Rome. There I think there will be many of us to greet the best of all.
°°°Recently Minopolis, for our newspaper, had expressed his opinion on the issue of the energy and nuclear crisis in Italy.
°°° FIRSTonline participates with great regret in the grief of Umberto Minopoli's family
