August 2nd, a peaceful day. Bernini's attack: "A political rally from Bolognesi." His reply: "We honor the dead by seeking truth and justice."
Bologna, August 3, 2025 – The controversy continues to escalate following the 45th anniversary of the August 2 massacre at Bologna train station, which left 85 dead and over 200 injured.
"What I witnessed yesterday wasn't a tribute to the victims of August 2, 1980, but a political rally that talked about people, the Prime Minister, the President of the Senate, the security decree, the separation of careers. I heard little honoring of the victims of the August 2 massacre and a lot of political rallies."
The day after the commemoration of the train station bombing, Anna Maria Bernini, Minister of Universities and Research at the Forza Italia General Assembly of Southern Italy, which concludes today at Villa San Giovanni, returned to yesterday's controversy . Bernini, as a government representative, had made her point immediately in the Courtyard of Honor of Palazzo d'Accursio: "I stand with the victims of the massacre and thank the Association of Victims' Families for their efforts, but I will distance myself from certain passages of Paolo Bolognesi's speech ."
On the stage in Piazza Medaglie d'Oro, at the station, the distance was evident. And while the now former president of the Association of Relatives (as of yesterday, the baton passed to Paolo Lambertini) listed names and surnames to reconstruct the ties between the MSI and the subversive right, brought up Giorgia Meloni, Ignazio La Russa, and Francesco Lollobrigida (to the accompanying jeers from the packed square at the FdI representatives and the prime minister), and attacked the government for "failing to recognize the neo-fascist roots" of the massacre, Bernini retreated from the front row to the back, but did not leave the ceremony. Today, when asked about the chill on stage, she admitted that "my question to the government was: if this happens (i.e., if Bolognesi holds a political rally), will you authorize me to get up and leave? They said 'yes, but consider the context.' Well, I didn't feel like getting up and leaving because that would have been disrespectful to those victims they weren't honoring properly. We did it for them too." The minister, however, admitted the day after the march: "It wasn't easy being on that stage ; I had a difficult day. But I did it with pride, I was honored, I did it because of everything I've experienced myself. What makes the difference, I believe, between us and other politicians is, when we are institutions, being institutions through and through."
Bolognesi – who yesterday in a back-and-forth with Bernini had asked her that she was 'waiting for action, after 45 years of pats on the back' – responded promptly: “Now I would really like to ask the thousands of people who were in the square yesterday, and all those who read the speech I gave, and from what we understand it got a lot of traction, if they attended a 'political rally', as Minister Bernini says”.
Bolognesi, now honorary president of the Association of Relatives of the Victims, retorts: "If we talk about honoring the dead, then let it be known that we consider it a private matter, and we don't go to the square to pray. Instead, we honor the victims by seeking truth and justice . This is exactly what our statute says: 'to obtain through all possible initiatives the justice due,' and I emphasize due; not a gift. We have behaved this way for years, to obtain justice," a theme reiterated in the ceremonies on August 2nd (which this year was marked by new sentences that cast doubt on those who instigated and perpetrated the massacre).
In short, "if Bernini didn't understand this, it's not our fault." The minister made this clear yesterday, at the end of Bolognesi's long speech: "I reject any connection between the horror of the massacre and current events or the current government without any ifs or buts, but the respect I owe, both personally and as a representative of the government, to the families of the victims and to all the survivors and relatives of the massacres has kept me standing on this stage , because this is democracy." She then added that honoring the victims is a commitment that would be carried forward "not just with words, but with concrete actions."
Bolognesi, in turn, had reiterated his desire to see the 'facts' . Today, tensions have risen again, with a question: are Bernini's commitments (on transparency in sentencing and on the law on compensation for victims' relatives) at risk of being undermined after the controversy, making yesterday a missed opportunity? "Well, this is the government of missed opportunities... Now I'd be interested in knowing the people's opinion," Bolognesi cut short. Yesterday, given the controversy, Prime Minister Meloni responded with a conciliatory note, calling the train station bombing "one of the darkest pages in history." No reference was made to the neo-fascist origins, though Bernini did mention them, referring, however, to the definition "of the magistrates." This clarification did not please the victims' families, gathered yesterday as usual in the City Hall's Courtyard of Honor.
İl Resto Del Carlino
