He is at home at Giffoni, but today he came to Cittadella as the Minister of Foreign Affairs for the first time. Luigi di Maio greeted the director Claudio Gubitosi as he arrived: “We cannot hug each other this time - the Minister said - but I am happy to be here in Giffoni”. He was welcomed also by the Mayor of Giffoni Valle Piana, Antonio Giuliano and the President of Ente Autonomo Giffoni Experience, Pietro Rinaldi.
After an unscheduled meeting with the employees of Whirlpool Naples, who waited for the Minister at the entrance of Cittadella, the Minister Di Maio stopped at Multimedia Valley, where he met the Dream Team at the Co-Working space of Innovation Hub, for a quick full immersion in innovation, digitalisation and new frontiers of economy. Afterwards, the meeting at Sala Blu with the kids of Giffoni Impact took place and it was led by the sociologist Domenico De Masi. The greetings of the director Gubitosi: “We are in many countries - the director said - and we are cooperating with Farnesina (the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs) for the first time. We had to postpone some activities to 2022, due to the limitations that we are currently experiencing. In particular, the ones in Japan, Canada, Qatar and Azerbaijan. In 2021 we will be in Albania, North Macedonia and Czech Republic”.
“I wish Claudio Gubitosi and his whole team well - this is how Minister Di Maio started his speech - In the same period of time when Giffoni was born, in some areas of Southern Italy heavy and expensive industry, from both a social and environmental perspective, was born, overshadowing the agricultural vocation of some territories. Giffoni keeps living on great evolutions. If I think about Giffoni, I think about change. Paradoxically, the pandemic is allowing this change to speed up even more”.
We are experiencing times of great change, connected mainly to the Covid: “What is happening right now - Minister Di Maio explained - will lead to a new, weaker globalisation. Even as regards Foreign Affairs, Italy will play a crucial role in the Mediterranean context and now it has a central role again in political and commercial relations”. Italy has gained its new centrality, Di Maio is very clear about that: “But - he said - when we ask Europe to intervene, then they tell us that we want to evade, when we make decisions on our own, they tell us that we are being too sovereignist. I believe that Italy has a good leading role and has always had the United States as an ally but, at the same time, Italy is a relation bridge between East and West”.
The Minister kindly answered the many questions of the kids in detail. There were no hesitations about the case of Giulio Regeni: “I would like to say, clearly - the Minister explained - that, without the ambassador in Cairo, we would not even have had the possibility to make the Powers of Attorney meet. That is why we demanded the reopening of relations. I want to be clear about this: we demand to know the truth about Giulio Regeni. Those who talk of normalisation of relations between Italy and Egypt are the furthest away from reality. Our priority is the truth about this case, and only then the normalisation of relations will be possible. We are proceeding with the greatest caution with this case and the one of Patrick Zaky. We now expect that our Power of Attorney will be able to move forward. Nonetheless, if this is our aim, then we need the Ambassador in Cairo and this explains the reopening”.
Then the topic of integration and that of citizenship: “Our country has already forms of ius culturae (the right to the Italian citizenship after having studied in Italy for a certain number of years) that allow 18-year-old people to obtain the Italian citizenship - Di Maio added - We are living in a Europe with 27 different models of citizenship. If Europe were compact, we could manage reception in an integrated way”. Eventually, the Minister spoke about the reopening of school: “Minister Azzolina - Di Maio said - and the whole government reassured families and students in saying that schools will open again on September 14th. Italy must guarantee, even in such uncertain times as those we are experiencing, the fundamental rights. Studying is among these. Voting is another one of them, because we are going to vote, safely, but we are going to vote. I have full trust in the government and the Ministers about this: students will certainly be able to start their classes again on September 14th”.
