Referendum for Peace. Verona Leads in Signature Collection: “The Magic Word is Mediation”

This war should have never been started – it was sufficient to do like in Southern Tyrol, where people mostly speak German and love the German culture. In Donbass, just as in Crimea, they mostly speak Russian and love the Russian culture. So, it sufficed to offer language and cultural autonomy for the Russian-speakers on these territories, then the war would have never started. Today most Italians are against the war and the supply of weapons to a warring country, as it does not solve the conflict. It is like if you see two arguing kids, instead of separating them, you would arm the younger one with a dagger. This would be a tragedy, even if one of them is wrong. It does not work this way. The magic word is “mediation,” which can be implemented only by ensuring a balance between certain fundamental principles: protecting minorities, principle of self-regulation, no threat to neighboring states, and only then, as a consequence, observing historical borders. The continuing arms supply and propaganda of hatred will only lead to new deaths and destruction. The referendum initiative started from two committees: “Withdraw from the War” and “Future Generations,” which were united under the slogan “Italy for peace.” These are two non-partisan committees that include representatives of various political structures: left, centrist, and right. Other groups and committees were later added, with the objective to contribute to mediation and preventing Italy from entering the war, just like in 1915, with propaganda similar to todays.

There are 3 questions in the referendum. Not going into details, as this would become too complicated, let me summarize: the first question suggests revoking the part of the law that allows the government to send arms to Ukraine bypassing the parliament; the second question suggests the same in regards to all warring countries; the third question concerns public health and sets the objective to eliminate the conflict of interests between the public and private sectors, since cutting the resources for public health would lower the quality of services and also contribute to depletion of resources in favor of military spendings.

The signature collection started all over Italy on April 22. We have 90 days to collect 500,000 signatures. Of course, this is a titanic job to do, especially with the media censorship, but we are hoping for success. In any case, this initiative also helps to open the eyes for many Italians who accept the dominating propaganda at face value. People whom I meet at our pavilions are mostly against the war, although they are sometimes afraid to provide their signatures, because there are those who spread hatred and breed unjustified concerns over black-list possibilities. We saw how a world-renown pianist was prohibited from playing the piano in several Italian theaters for the sole reason of being an ethnic Russian (incidentally, she is also a US citizen) – I’m talking about Valentina Lisitsa.

I don’t have the national data, because there are many groups that are collecting signatures, and the data transmission to the central organization takes time and burdensome bureaucratic procedures. For each collected signature we must retrieve the corresponding electoral certificate. This is easy to do at the local city council, but for those who sign in Verona and live elsewhere it is not that easy. In addition, we offer online voting. I don’t know how many signatures we are getting there, because this requires an entry in the Public Digital Identification System, from where the data goes directly to the central organization. However, I would say that we are doing well in Verona, where we set up 6 pavilions per week, with people lining up to place their signatures. We also organized a referendum rally on June 2 at Piazza dei Signori, but not a single newspaper or TV channel reported on it. In just two and a half hours we collected 100 signatures for each of the three referendums.

As I said, people that we meet at pavilions are almost all against the war, they ask questions and place their signatures right away, except for those who are afraid to sign because they may be black-listed or unjustly accused of putinism, which is a new term for “ugly and mean.” But we really are for peace between people and for mediation, because mistakes are definitely made not just by one side, and strong geopolitical interests are involved as well.

It is hard to tell, but certain episodes indicate that someone is conducting negotiations under the table, yet nobody wants to lose face. Perhaps, some people need to reread the research on the art of war by Chinese commander and philosopher Sun Tzu (5-6 centuries B.C.) who suggested building golden bridges for the fleeing enemy, in order to avoid unexpected reactions. Hitting the enemy with renewed vigor (providing more and more weapons) always brings disaster, at every turn.

Now it is clear that this war leads to a frightening economic crisis in many European countries. It looks like the sanctions are mostly harming those who are imposing them. Are we sure that the European Union will be better off by abandoning the cheap energy supplied by Russia and buying it for a quadruple price in the USA? Why are we then pushing Russia closer to China instead of coexisting in mutual respect? Even Pope Francis said that “NATO barking at the Russian door forced the head of the Kremlin to react badly and initiate the conflict. This anger, I’m not sure whether it was provoked, but quite possibly encouraged.” Why does the EU no longer listen to its citizens who are mostly against this war? Perhaps, Vladimir Bukovsky, the famous Soviet dissident, was right when he said twenty years ago, “It took us 70 years to overthrow one dictatorship, but I see that in Europe you are building another one”.

This war severed communications with Greater Eurasia, and it will be difficult to restore them, but we will try. The cultural ties to Russia are still very strong and can grow even stronger if we can shut up the propagators of hatred and fake news. We, the residents of Veneto, have particularly lost many opportunities in trade and tourism. What comes to mind is the 2019 suggestion by the Sevastopol governor on twinning with Verona. We were told about the presence of Venetian and Genoese fortifications from previous centuries, as well as the 6th century church dedicated to Saint Marin I who had died and is buried there, and also about the other historical and cultural similarities, such as opera, lyric poetry, and ballet. Unfortunately, there wasn’t enough courage to implement this; perhaps it could have served the peace cause.