Milan, a bipartisan appeal: Marco Pannella's name should remain in the gardens of Piazza Aquileia.

"Dear Mr. Mayor," the petition reads, "especially in recent years, Marco Pannella, speaking of death, said that the important thing was to be 'co-present,' using a complicated Capitinian term that, in practical terms, means that it was important to him that the memory of what he had done accompany and help those who wanted to continue his battles. It is precisely because of this wish , almost testamentary, that the two motions to dedicate something to him in Milan (voted by the City Council in 2016 and 2021) have envisioned a seemingly unpretentious location: the gardens of Piazza Aquileia ," a short distance from San Vittore.

Gabriele Albertini, 74, former mayor of Milan, among the signatories of the appeal

"Pannella," the letter continues, "has never been a believer in the 'gold' and monumental luxuries of power. Instead, he has always stood by the most vulnerable, and so that very place, where the families of prisoners bid farewell to them , next to what was once a Jewish cemetery outside Milan, is perfect for him. Ever since he was a child, he saw a Jewish schoolmate disappear, and he has held that religious minority dear."

Furthermore, it wouldn't be the first time that an area near a prison has been named after the historic leader active in civil rights and minority rights, almost as if to symbolize his work protecting prisoners, always one of the front lines of the radical struggle. " In this spirit, the Municipality of Pavia has dedicated a small street in front of the prison to him ," the authors of the appeal continue, "parallel to the one dedicated to the jurist Vittorio Grevi and flanked by a tree that will soon be dedicated to Enzo Tortora, his friend and comrade in arms."

A street that, even if "it is a bit 'ugly' (for now), made his lifelong friend, MP Roberto Giachetti , say while he was visiting it: 'I think he would be very happy because this street is not in the center of Pavia but is fifty meters from a prison where he spent his life. I think it is something that fills him with pride.'"

At the municipal council meeting on July 22, the president of Municipio 1, Mattia Ibrahim Abdu Ismahil, declared that “a suitable location is being found” , implying that councilor Tommaso Sacchi is looking for a different location from the one identified and voted on twice by the Municipal Council.

" Giving Pannella a 'dignified' place , one that's attractive according to the canons of official politics," the mayor's interlocutors continue, " isn't celebrating the radical leader but rather embalming him and doing exactly the opposite of what he asked for. Also because doing so would seem to reward those who, in order to safeguard the institutions, went so far as to drink his urine (as they did during a thirst strike over the failed election of constitutional judges) with a slap in the face to the City Council."

Therefore, the conclusion is, "we ask you to intervene so that others are left with the mausoleums of regime propaganda, perhaps designed to better erase the memory of those being propagandized, and to allow Marco Pannella in Milan to be co-present alongside the most vulnerable for whom he fought until his last breath."