The 50th anniversary of the divorce and the memory of DC Pumilia: “Fanfani told us, if you vote yes your wives will end up running away with the maids”

ROME — «Your wives will end up running away with the maids…». Caltanissetta, 26 April 1974. Regina Margherita Theatre. A room full of farmers, brought in by bus from the towns of internal Sicily, notables with thick tie knots, the middle class of the silent majority who distrust extremism. Amintore Fanfani, the head of the DC, came from Rome. On the buses the farmers sang O bianco fiore in honor of the secretary who promotes the reasons of those who want to repeal the law which four years earlier established divorce in Italy: the Fortuna-Baslini. A referendum on modernity. And on Fanfani himself. Before the rally the secretary gathers the leaders of the island’s DC around a set table in the Di Prima hotel and asks everyone for a prediction on how he will go to Sicily; national polls are not favorable. The leaders take the victory of the Yes vote for repeal as a certainty. The parliamentarian from Agrigento, Calogero Pumilia, known as Lillo, aged 37, does not hide his reservations about the outcome. As an exponent of the Forze Nuove current, that of Donat Cattin, close to the union and the world of work, has a sure hold on society. «I explained to him that the Sicilians had changed, the customs had changed, and that the supporters of divorce could have prevailed here too. Fanfani, who was intelligent but a smoker, attacked me.” Then at the theatre, in the heat of the rally, Fanfani says a phrase that at first no one understands: «Your wives will end up running away with the waitresses…». It was often repeated in the news commemorating the referendum.

And Pumilia was there. Today you are 87 years old. He was a parliamentarian until 1992, twice undersecretary. When he became one for the first time he found the musical band waiting for him in the square of his town, Caltabellotta, of which he was also mayor. 1974 is the year of total Dutch football, of the boom of The History of Elsa Morante, of Pasolini’s famous piece on those responsible for the massacres in Italy. The DC, pushed by the Vatican, and Almirante’s social movement are united against the divorce. Almirante brings up the Red Brigades, who are holding judge Sossi under kidnapping: «Against the friends of the Red Brigades, vote Yes on May 12th». The DC comes out with a poster depicting a child: “Think of your child, vote Yes against divorce.” Not all Catholics obey. In a document released on 18 January 1972, a group of intellectuals (including Andreatta, Saraceno, Scoppola, Gozzini, Parisi) announced their abstention, in the belief that the indissolubility of marriage must be «guarded in consciences, rather than defended with Civil Code”. What does Pumilia remember about that day fifty years ago? «A timid applause started from the stage, which was followed by the audience. The point is that none of those present had a maid, and even less did the institutionalization of a couple made up of two women seem possible. Fanfani intended to appeal to the most conservative instincts; after all, many communists also thought that southerners would vote for abolition. They were convinced that women would side with the reactionary front, because they feared losing the financial protection of men. Instead, Sicily voted No, and, albeit by a narrow margin, saved the law.” The islands stood out for their progressivism, while in the rest of the South the No party prevailed. The divorce supporters, on a national scale, won with 60 percent. Italy had changed. How did Pumilia vote? «Blank card». Did he abstain? “Yes, I didn’t want to clash with my party, but at the same time I wanted to stand out.” The following day Il Popolo, the organ of the DC, ran the headline: «The communists intend to definitively ruin the family…». «Ah – concludes Pumilia – years later I divorced my wife».