Milan-Strasbourg: chronicle of an “electric” journey with MEPs Pedullà and Torselli

The meeting is set for 8:30 in front of the Rai headquarters in Corso Sempione in Milan. Waiting for us is the electric van with French license plates driven by Samy. The van has a name: Europa Express. Which is also the name of the project conceived by Paolo Bergamaschi (VITA signature and former long-time official in the Foreign Affairs Committee of the European Parliament) in collaboration with the authors and hosts of the historic Rai Radio 2 broadcast Caterpillar: Massimo Cirri, Sara Zambotti and Paolo Labati. The project was supported by the Office of the European Parliament in Milan and Rome.

This is the fourth road trip of the series, but the first full electric . With Bergamaschi, Zambotti, Labati and myself on the van are Valentina Parasecolo, head of communications for the European Parliament in Italy, Caterina Moser of the Antonio Magalizzi Foundation and – as expected from the format – two Italian MEPs from opposing sides: Gaetano Pedullà of the 5 Star Movement and Francesco Torselli of Fratelli d'Italia.

Objective of the trip: to get to know and make our representatives in Europe better known. Estimated travel time: 5 hours. Actual time: 9 hours, thanks to the overturning of a truck in the 17 kilometers of the Gotthard tunnel, just a few minutes before our arrival at the tunnel. Result? Twofold: we arrived in Strasbourg in the area used as the radio studio of the European Parliament five minutes before the start of the live broadcast of Caterpillar (which is broadcast from Monday to Friday from 6 to 8 pm). But above all we had time to get to know Pedullà and Torselli better.

Gaetano Pedullà , born in 1967, from Catania, journalist, former director of Tempo and founder of la Notizia. An almost ten-year experience in Christian Democracy between the 80s and 90s of the last century. In 2024 he received 15,902 preferences, the most voted among the former grillini.

Francesco Torselli, born in 1976 in Florence and raised in Prato. Former group leader of Fratelli d'Italia in the regional council of Tuscany. In the European elections he presents himself in the Central Italy Constituency. He is elected with 43,439 preferences.

This is the summary of the cards you find on Wikipedia. The surprises arrive in front of the entrance of the San Gottardo. The set is what you can see in this video clip made by Caterina Moser.

Pedullà and Torselli are sitting opposite each other. But there are many things that unite them. As long as we leave issues like Ukraine and the Green Deal in the background. But this will be discussed in Strasbourg. For now we are stuck in Switzerland. The tunnel is a few hundred meters away. But we will get there in about ninety minutes. In the meantime, looking out the window to the right and left, the postcard is made in Swiss: green meadows and grazing cattle.

Meanwhile, the conversation gets going. Both MEPs have solid acquaintances and friendships in the Italian right. Of course, it matters little to Torselli, even if he is keen to underline that he «has never been in the Fronte delle Gioventù», but above all that he joined the ranks of Meloni's party «because in a left-wing region like Tuscany “it was cooler” : if I had been born in other latitudes, perhaps today I would be on another shore». Naturally, he says it smiling, somewhere between “serious and facetious”. However, the feeling is that there is a grain of truth in it.

Pedullà's overtaking on the right is surprising. "Isabella Rauti is a very dear friend of mine." Isabella Rauti has been a senator of the Italian Republic (for the "Nation" she would say) for Fratelli d'Italia since March 23, 2018 and undersecretary of State at the Ministry of Defense in the Meloni government since November 2, 2022. Not only that. Isabella is the daughter of Pino, historic leader of the Italian Social Movement and former very young volunteer of the Italian Social Republic. Isabella Rauti was married to the former mayor of Rome Gianni Alemanno from 1992 to 2018. Missino, Alemanno is another big name on the Italian right. In 2016 she wrote a book Verità capitale in which she tells her truth about the years she lived at the Campidoglio. The preface is signed by Pedullà himself. Today Alemanno is detained in Rebibbia to serve a sentence of one year and ten months from where – meritoriously – he is denouncing through a diary the conditions in which the prisoners find themselves in the Roman prison. Equally meritoriously Pedullà, shortly before getting on the electric van expertly driven by Samy, had gone to the penitentiary to check the state of things. "And things are not going well at all", he tells us. An assist for Torselli. He too recently visited Sollicciano, the prison in Florence and the one in Livorno: "Bedbugs, cockroaches, the rain that enters the cells... the prisoners live in indecent conditions, the social-health personnel is understaffed, prison police who constantly live in dangerous situations: in short, a horrendous situation, on which we must intervene".

It is not easy to find two exponents of parties classified as "justice-seekers" who care about legality inside Italian prisons. The electric and sustainable Caterpillar van has succeeded. But there is more. The writer, struck by the sensitivity on the subject of detention, tries to relaunch by putting another very social issue on the table: that of housing, in the large Italian and European cities the costs for the middle class are becoming unsustainable. Pedullà and Torselli also show attention on this point. Both then say they are very satisfied with the experience they are having between Brussels and Strasbourg. "Many good things can be done, voters should be more aware of it", they reiterate in unison. Torselli gives a concrete example recalling his commitment to the Pistoia floriculturists, but also alongside the Cipo patients (chronic intestinal pseudo-obstruction) "a rare disease that makes it impossible to satisfy normal nutritional needs that lead to weight loss and involuntary malnutrition". A commitment born from the initiative of a patient who contacted him. "Citizens must know that we are at their disposal", he reiterates. Europa Express is here precisely for this.

In the meantime, the Gotthard has been freed. Samy is reassuring: «We will arrive on time for the episode». He won't be wrong. Just enough time for two last confessions. Torselli confesses a passion for two icons of the left like Che Guevara and Francesco Guccini. Pedullà, handling a plastic Coca Cola bottle frees himself of a great weight: «Luckily here in Switzerland the caps are not attached to the bottles». With all due respect to EU directive 2019/904 according to which from 3 July 2024, the obligation to equip plastic bottles with a tethered cap has come into force throughout the EU, even after being unscrewed and lifted, so as not to disperse it in the environment. It was a green victory supported by the 5 Star Movement. But Pedullà at least in neutral Switzerland grants himself an indemnity. A venial sin that we will forget as soon as we return to Europe. A couple more hours and the road trip to Strasbourg will have reached its destination. 6:00 pm: the episode of Caterpillar begins.

Photo: MEPs Francesco Torselli and Gaetano Pedullà during the episode of Caterpillar broadcast from the European Parliament in Strasbourg