I tre presidenti (ma ce n'č un quarto). La Costituzione Repubblicana secondo Schifani, Fini e Berlusconi

Abstract

- After the Popolo della Libertŕ's win at the 13th and 14th of April 2008 elections, most of the Newscasts on both public and private television welcomed the inaugural speeches made by the President of the Senate Schifani, the President of the Chamber Fini and the Prime Minister Berlusconi as the confirmation of the Italian right wing tradition of government. Looking closer, apart from the formal tributes towards President Napolitano, the three inaugural speeches introduce a substantial breach as regards republican democracy, the balance of popular sovereignty, parliamentary representation and government action, the recognition of the plurality of creeds and religious confessions, of cultural and political pluralism, and the synthesis of the rights of freedom and equality resolutely pursued by the Constituent Assembly. The entire system of the equilibrium of powers between the State bodies and a central part of the bill of rights of the republican Constitution is brought into discussion: with the predominance of the principle of freedom over the principle of equality, the democratic game is bereft of the fundamental dialectics between freedom and equality perceived by Norberto Bobbio as the inseparable nucleus of modern constitutionalism. Thus, it has to be the historian's task to try and re-establish a virtuous circle between politics, culture and the ability to intervene in the most delicate topics concerning the quality of Italian democracy today. Key words: Republican Constitution, Freedom/Equality, Renato Schifani, Gianfranco Fini, Silvio Berlusconi, Norberto Bobbio, Gustavo Zagrebelski, Politics/Culture, Italian Democracy.