Writer Dacia Maraini says 'Italy is in decline'

Italian writer Dacia Maraini, one of the greatest intellectuals in Europe and the world, believes that Italy is regressing as a society, after so much progress.

"The year 1968 brought a great transformation to Italy, and thanks also to feminism we achieved gender equality, despite the cultural resistance to change. Now, however, we are witnessing an involution of the country, which is regressing", analyzed Maraini, who is in Rio de Janeiro, UNESCO's World Book Capital, at the invitation of the director of the city's Italian Institute of Culture, Marco Marica, to present the Portuguese translation of "The Long Life of Marianna Ucrìa".

During a meeting at the National Library, where she was received by the president of the foundation, Marco Lucchesi, and also attended by the Italian consul in the capital of Rio de Janeiro, Massimiliano Iacchini, the writer explained that in Italy we are witnessing a regression, for example, in the public sphere, with "very serious cuts in schools", "with negligence in health, in favor of private health, and in ecology", with few projects to remedy climate change.

Maraini also pointed the finger at the calamity of femicides, which are increasingly numerous: a phenomenon resulting from the "growing independence of women, which some Italian men cannot accept."

She also said that the failure of the recent referendum on Italian citizenship demonstrates "this involution", recognizing, on the other hand, the need for knowledge of the Italian language and Italy for those who wish to obtain a passport.

The writer also gave her opinion on the "esame di maturità", a final exam for high school in Italy that leads to university in the European country.

"[Pierpaolo] Pasolini's poetry is in the right place because it tells the story of the passage from adolescence to maturity and places the theme of human time, so fragile and swift, before the candid and apparently eternal time of the moon," Maraini told ANSA, speaking about the themes proposed for the Italian competition, which began this Wednesday (18).