I served in the army for a year. There was a photograph of the President in all barracks and offices, just like today. It was imperative to know his commander’s name as well as his name. No one could openly say, “He is not my president.” Even the oath formula still in force was a reminder of constitutional loyalty. It is true that someone twisted the words “I swear” into an abusive scream. But we were children. Conscripts served in uniform. And while waiting in long lines on the day of the oath, no crime against the Constitution was felt.

However, it is serious that during a public order ceremony in Milan a Carabinière conscripted on a permanent contract publicly said to a protester who asked him about Sergio Mattarella: “I’m sorry, ma’am, he is not my president. I did not vote for him, he is “I didn’t choose him, I don’t know him.”

Ignorance aside: In Italy, the President is elected not by the citizens, but by the Parliament in session. The question we need to ask ourselves is another: How many professional soldiers are there who do not recognize themselves in the current republican Constitution?

The popularity achieved by General Roberto Vannacci should make us think. Besides his writing in Italian, which probably does not meet the standard of a defender of national culture, his famous book dismantles many articles of the Constitution. It is certainly not a crime to have your own opinions or to aspire to a presidential republic like the United States. But as long as the system is like this, no soldier, no soldier in uniform, no soldier performing public duty can ignore the President, who is the head of the state and the guarantor of national unity.

The force’s overall commander, Teo Luzi, did a good job of reassigning the gendarmes to another unit while awaiting disciplinary and punitive action. Even the reform proposed by the incumbent right-wing government through minister Maria Elisabetta Alberti Casellati does not go so far as to directly elect the head of state, limiting this opportunity to the Prime Minister. Even Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni clearly knows the risks of an Italian-style Donald Trump. Starting from his possible opening statement: Because although he has the ‘voice of politicians and intellectuals’ (these are Vannacci’s words), to err is human ‘but – Vannacci always writes – to be angry is demonic’.

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