What is the credibility of a tightrope walker measured? I can’t say it for sure, but we could ask a tightrope walker, or rather one of the greatest tightrope walkers of all time: Philippe Petit, the man who, in 1974, accomplished the feat of walking a tightrope between the towers twins of New York at 400 meters high. It was he who said that “a crossing on the wire is a metaphor for life: there is a beginning, an end, a progress and if you take a step sideways, you die”. A precise direction that gradually becomes progress. It becomes successful, like the one that Petit had in the public eye, it becomes credibility, like the one he acquired in the eyes of the New York District Attorney who, after his arrest, dropped all formal charges against him, condemning him only to perform for children in Central Park. If a tightrope walker takes a step sideways he does not lose credibility, he loses his life. And a politician? He does not walk on a rope at a height of 400 meters, so personal safety is not in question. But it should lose its credibility, instead in Italy not only does it not lose it, but gains consent, draws applause from every declaration. And it matters little that that statement is in clear contrast to the previous one.
Otherwise it would not be explained how Matteo Salvini can still be, according to the polls, the secretary of the most voted political party in the country. No, I am not referring to the leap over Europe made to justify the League’s entry into the Draghi government. I’m talking about the latest outing by the leader of the Carroccio on the candidacy of the magistrate Catello Maresca as mayor of Naples. Maresca this morning obtained the green light from the CSM to request a leave of absence from his functions in the judiciary. Today the leader of the Lega Salvini said he was “overjoyed” by the availability of the anti-amorra prosecutor.
There is no need to be happy or unhappy. We only need to understand how such a candidacy can be endorsed after having presented themselves as equal partners in the Radical Party’s initiative to launch a referendum on justice. The referendums concern the civil liability of the magistrates, “because everyone pays if they make a mistake and the judges don’t”, the separation of careers, the repeal of the Severino law (the one for which Berlusconi was forced to leave the seat in the Senate). But there is also a referendum to ban the out-of-office positions of magistrates. Also because, Salvini said, “the aim is to prevent another Palamara case from happening again”.
I would have been much more “overjoyed” if he had had something to object to a magistrate who interrupts his mission, that of doing justice in the name of the people, to enter politics. And then Salvini will excuse me if I look at his “over-the-top happiness” as yet another step sideways by a politician who has taken too many side steps and also long ones, left and right. It is perhaps no coincidence that in the center-right, with the numbers of Fratelli d’Italia, a leadership theme arises. But don’t worry too much. At the most he can lose credibility and consensus because, fortunately for him, he is a politician and not a tightrope walker.
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