(by John Blackeye - Massimiliano D'Elia) Enough, let's turn the page!
Seven hundred deaths a day. The equivalent of a mountain village disappears every day. Yesterday another village and so the day before yesterday.
As every evening we look forward to the bulletin issued by the Civil Protection which for days now has confirmed that the contagion trend is always growing.
Stable, however, is the peaceful presence of the Chief of Civil Protection who, on the one hand, manages to contain emotions to prevent the general panic from spreading to the population, on the other hand, it really seems that nothing else can do but provide the number of deaths, of the infected and hospitalized who are added every day to the previous ones throughout the national territory. Appointed as Head of the Department at times when foreseeable emergencies would never have allowed us to imagine apocalyptic scenarios like this, perhaps he should be the first to take a step back in favor of those who, in the past, have dedicated their lives to dealing with dangerous situations .
However, in this war scenario in which the Italians have not yet fully understood that they have to play a leading role by remaining closed at home, those who give a perception of greater impotence are not so much the Head of Civil Protection but it is precisely the executive .
Northern Italy hospitals are in total confusion. It seems that the only certain thing that works in the wards of the infectious wards is that of triage. This is a military technique that leads to making a choice among the wounded left on a battle loop. The mild ones are rescued, the others left. The only cue to justify the heroism of doctors and nurses, so praised in the past few hours to keep national unity strong, is their self-denial, the willpower with which they fight, practically unarmed. Then it became clear that the virus does it all by itself. Either it lets you live or it makes you die. All this in the face of the impotence of a national health system cut into pieces over the years and destroyed by that unhealthy logic that demanded savings and cuts from a sector that stands up to guarantee the health of citizens. But that's another story. Like that of closed numbers in medical schools. Will anyone have to account for these two national anomalies once the clear sky returns, or not?
Today, unfortunately, there are no more places to fix coffins. Neither the churches nor the cemeteries can host many corpses. For these there are no religious services and family members who have seen a loved one get in an ambulance, must be satisfied with that last look because, probably, they will not even have a place to mourn their relatives. Mass cremation appears to have been decided. We are in full pandemic.
In all this history the national institutions are not making a good impression. The only one that seems to work is the usual judiciary that also in these cases has found elements to investigate someone.
The government? unjustified absence. Indeed it goes on with decretucci.
The President of the Republic has recently and repeatedly invited national unity and controversy cannot and should not be made towards those who have the task of keeping the reins of the state on an impervious and unpredictable path such as that of a world pandemic.
But the right to lift your finger and tell everyone that the government is inadequate to hold these reins in your hands, is it granted or should we keep silent?
In a global pandemic scenario in which uncertainties and disorganization can become the additional viruses that give the population the coup de grace, the Armed Forces are left waiting. As if in a football game you keep the out of class on the bench to make him play only the last five minutes to try to balance a match that is being lost. Don't you think it's madness? That coach would certainly be exonerated at the end of the game.
To stay on the subject and to give an idea of the national perception, it seems that the government is playing in defense and is moving only to counter the opponent's attacks. Committed more to giving account to those who have the management of finance in their hands than trying to save lives.
The recent appointment of a super commissioner, after almost a week, has not borne tangible results and its operations are not known. We know it is there, like the government: we know it is there.
Unfortunately, reality sees the invisible enemy reaping deaths everywhere. But the inertia is palpable. We do not have the ability to nationalize that industry that could be converted into the production of medical devices necessary for the health system and the entire population. For masks - which before, according to the Government were useless and which now, according to the Government, are indispensable - we are relying on the usual international contracts that we do not know when, perhaps soon, they will bring a number of however insufficient masks to face the emergency. How many more dead in the wait?
Let's stop for a moment and make a constructive reflection.
Here it is as if they were shooting at us in the war. The Virus does not stop in the face of procurement or insufficient restrictive measures. Something must be done immediately.
This government could float in the event of ordinary administration and even in that context it had already manifested cracks and cracks within it. Disagreements between Ministers and different political lines between the members of the 5 Star Movement and the Democratic Party were leading Italy towards new elections.
So how can a government that was unable to stand up with its own strength in moments of flat calm, face and solve a problem of this magnitude, safeguarding the health of sixty million Italians? The answer is obvious and elementary.
People have understood that reassuring unified network talks are useless. People need certainties, energetic interventions, leaders capable of transforming national resources into concrete contributions to defeat this cursed virus.
The Lombardy Region has been asking for more stringent measures for weeks and only today would a government order have been issued which, however, does not implement the requests. Central intervention is still too mild.
There are not enough respirators in the resuscitation rooms and reassuring messages from the executive representatives continue to follow.
There are no beds, no health personnel, no certainty.
Maybe the time has come to turn the page?
An emergency of this magnitude cannot be managed by a Head of Government who can boast of experience only in jurisdictional circles.
Such a dramatic emergency cannot be administered by a Foreign Minister who has been catapulted onto the national political stage by a vote made online by the members of a party dematerialized on an IT platform.
A pandemic cannot be faced with the hope that everything will resolve itself, perhaps silently invoking that immunity of flock feared by politicians over the sleeve.
The time has come to accept the invitation of the Head of State and, with the honor of arms, step aside in the name of national unity.
This emergency cannot be managed by a small majority of parliamentary majority with no specific experience.
The time has come to insert an extra gear to overcome the contagion and through a parliamentary path, it is necessary to reach a government of experts formed with the contribution of all national political forces.
In cases like these, everyone's contribution is needed, whether they be politicians or scientists, whether military or professors. Neither the merit nor the total responsibility for a victory or a bitter defeat in the fight against the pandemic can be attributed to an inhomogeneous group of politicians and non-politicians who lead the nation today. We need experts of great and proven caliber.
Immediately, the Armed Forces must be called in, the only ones capable of acting with proven and effective paradigms in emergency situations like this.
The Head of the Government must be given a strong figure, a well-known national expert who can serve precisely to overcome the contingent moment. If in the past there were no obstacles to appointing Monti as head of a government that was to overcome an economic crisis, today there should be no obstacles to appointing a technician or a former soldier, to the head of an executive who must overcome an even worse state of emergency . At that time there was talk of money. Here we talk about human lives.
Untangling between interviews and transmitting reassuring information and suggesting that things are going in the right direction when the opposite is true is no longer possible.
Conte, Di Maio, Guerini, Bonafede and the others take a step back. Professional politics and diplomacy are not able to save lives, now we understand it.
Forward and urgently towards a new government of national unity.
How many other mountain villages have yet to disappear? How many other families must have a loved one taken away in the knowledge that they can no longer embrace him? How much more suffering will we have to swallow before someone gives up that damned armchair?