Venice raped

It wasn’t enough to have the big ships passing through St. Mark’s basin every day, prompting Venetians to hope and pray that nothing bad would happen. It wasn’t enough the waffling and intrusive tourism that has turned Venice into an amusement park, so much so that even a fan of our Facebook page told us that one day a tourist approached her and asked her “what time does Venice close.” Cardin’s tower, the events at the Santa Chiara Hotel, Benetton at the Fondaco dei Tedeschi were not enough. No, evidently all that was not enough, if Venice had to suffer in these days the ultimate rape, the coup de grace.

A coup de grace of the worst kind: the Mose affair that led to the arrest of thirty-five people, including the city’s mayor, Giorgio Orsoni (and it comes to mind how low the profile of someone who is suspected of receiving bribes can be when he should instead be the first citizen, moreover of one of the most delicate cities in the country), has brought out into the open a very sad and miserable reality made of stealing, bribes, corruption. But, Venice aside, the succession of reports of bribery, stealing, arrests, and warrants in recent days is unbelievable. First came politicians Scajola and Matacena, investigated for possible mafia connections. Then it was the turn of the CARIGE case that brought to light years of fraud and damage to the banking institution, with charges of conspiracy and money laundering leading to the arrest of the bank’s top management. Again, former minister Corrado Clini arrested for embezzlement following an investigation into a project to develop water resources in Iraq. And again, theinvestigation into the Milan Expo that is making us look bad internationally (as if the rest were not enough). All in the space of not even a month: it really makes an impression to see how corruption is now widespread in all circles, starting with politics and business, and that, indeed, it seems to have become a habit. A habit that hardly causes a stir: “it was known,” “what’s the big deal?” and “they all do this” seem to be the comments that are in vogue when one hears news of such cases. And this is also worrying: it means that we citizens have also become accustomed to the worst. And when we become accustomed to the worst, it is also more difficult to unite to counter it: we prefer to think of something else, because we think that this is the daily routine, these are the customs of our country, and countering them is of little use because there will always be those who steal, those who bribe, those who give bribes, those who upset tenders, those who cheat. But instead, this is not the attitude, because we too, in our own small way, can do something, for legality. To speak up about these issues, to avoid hiding, to respect ourselves and others, to respect the environment, to behave with dignity in every moment of our day: the battle for legality must start from individual daily gestures.

Let us return to Venice, however. It is sad to see how Venice has now been left at the mercy of everyone but its citizens. Of the uselessness of a project such as MOSE, against which a large section of the city’s population sided in the past, there are those who speak more qualifiedly than we do, and there is no need to add more. But Venice is not just MOSE. Venice is a city on sale, hostage to unbridled privatization, so much so that some have renamed the city’s city hall, which is based in Ca’ Farsetti, as Ca’ Farsetti Real Estate. All this in spite of a mayor, Massimo Cacciari, who heads a council that was supposed to be leftist. Think of the Fondaco dei Tedeschi sold to the Benetton group. Which had already bought theisland of San Clemente in the past to make it a luxury hotel, a project that punctually came to fruition. And again Benetton a few years ago had a very active bookstore dis lodged from the premises of the old San Marco cinema to rent to a Louis Vuitton store. And again Benetton was responsible for the transformation of the Teatro Ridotto into a restaurant. But Benetton, who seems to have become the master of the city, is not the only one. Think of Prada, which bought Ca’ Corner della Regina from the city to make a showroom with a boutique attached. Or the Hard Rock Café, with its tamboyant projection of the chain’s logo on the Campanile di San Marco. Or at the Santa Chiara Hotel, which is building a glass and steel cube at the mouth of the Grand Canal.

But one could also think about the big ships affair: the “no” front is growing all the time, and there are associations and citizens proposing alternative solutions to safeguard the interests of the city, the environment, and the cruise lines. From plans for new terminals to projects to change the tourism model. But, as the case of Piazza Verdi in La Spezia teaches, administrations are often completely deaf to proposals that start from below. It is only to be hoped that with the latest events that will bring obvious upheavals in the logics of Venetian politics, the situation can change and the citizens of Venice can once again take ownership of their city. A raped Venice, which needs to recover from years of bad policies and bad management that have turned it into what it is now. But let us hope that the events of these days are nothing more than the beginning of a rebirth. Difficult, but it will be up to the citizens of Venice, and all of us as well.

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