They are the polite wave that took over the square in Turin: last Saturday 30 or perhaps 40 thousand people responded to the appeal of "Yes, Turin goes on" and of the seven organizers who managed to mobilize civil society to react to the many "No" - to the Olympics, to the Tav, to infrastructure, to work - from the Appendino administration. An awakening of the city that was in the air but that they were able to intercept. “We are not manipulated by anyone. It's us with our heads”, they said on 10 November to a crowded Piazza Castello and also a little amazed at the enormous success of the event. How was this possible? Where did they start from and now, where do they want to go? Is Turin an "experiment" that can be replicated elsewhere or perhaps the seed of a movement that suggests the French "En marche" with which Emmanuel Macron conquered the Elysée? FIRSTonline asked Simonetta Carbone, Roberta Castellina, Donatella Cinzano, Roberta Dri, Patrizia Ghiazza, Giovanna Giordano, Adele Olivero (strictly in alphabetical order). Seven professionals – lawyer, art director, computer scientist, headhunter etc – which it is reductive to label as Madam (ladies, as well it was done). Here's what they replied.
"Yes, Turin goes on” is already a site, a hastag, it is alive on facebook, twitter and instagram but above all it has managed to fill a square as big as Piazza Castello with 40 people. Where and how did your initiative start?
“Some of us knew each other, some didn't. We were in the Municipality last October 29, when the majority of the City Council approved the No Tav motion. It seemed to us that someone wanted to steal our future, from us, from our city and from our children. We said to ourselves that something had to be done and we started with the facebook page, in a few hours we had collected 3 subscriptions. In the following days it was an avalanche and then we said to each other that Turin was ready to take to the streets. We are working women and we have an all-female practicality: instead of chatting a lot, we have acted with concreteness and determination. Day after day, we arrived at Saturday November 10th. And the virtual square has become a real square: there were over 40 of us”.
The Tav is only the latest of the many "no" arrivals from the new Appendino junta. Why did you choose this as the symbol to go on the counteroffensive?
“Because it was the classic drop that made the vase overflow and, moreover, the heaviest drop, the one that seriously jeopardizes the future development of Turin, Piedmont and all of Italy. Many in Turin think like us that we need to move from the logic of No to that of Yes: Yes to the TAV, Yes to work, Yes to the city of study, Yes to Research and Development, Yes to Solidarity, Yes to culture and tourism" .
In Italy, however, many or perhaps too many yeses have also been said, for example if we look at the overbuilding of the Italian landscape. That's why, say the Five Stars, it's time to say no. How do you respond to this objection?
“There have been mountains of studies on the environmental impact of the Tav and the route has been studied and re-studied precisely to meet the needs of landscape protection. Few people know that, of the 65 kilometers of the cross-border section, 89% is in tunnels. On the other hand, one should ask why the French Greens are so much in favor of opera. Overbuilding has nothing to do with it, we are talking about a vital and necessary railway line, which will replace a railway and a tunnel built in 1871. A tunnel in which, for safety reasons, freight trains cannot cross and new freight trains cannot enter due to the small size of the tunnel. Thanks to this new connection, it will be possible to reduce by a third the number of trucks that pass through the motorway every year and pollute the Susa Valley”.
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“Yes, Turin goes on”: looking beyond the November 10 demonstration, what will be your next goals?
“We would like to be able to bring to President Mattarella the requests of the 40 in Piazza Castello and of the other 45 who have given us their support on Facebook. The Head of State will be in Turin on November 26, who knows if he will receive us ”.
Against the inaction of the Raggi administration, Rome said enough with the demonstration in the Campidoglio. You have mobilized Turin's businesses and citizens. Can this movement be replicated in other Italian cities? And where?
“We know that there is a certain ferment in Genoa, always linked to public works promised and now questioned, such as the Gronda and the Third Pass. The so-called industrial triangle, engine of development for all of Italy, has the desire and urgency to restart and accelerate its growth”.
There are those who have seen more than one analogy between "Sì Torino" and "En marche", the movement promoted by Emmanuel Macron which conquered the Elysée. They too started, so to speak, from the bottom up, mobilizing civil society. What political outlet do you think your initiative could have?
“We took to the streets moved by the desire for a future of development and possibilities. The people, the citizens, the so-called civil society have followed us in a respectful, polite but equally determined way. We have created a wave, it is still a little early to know what outlets it will have”.
