Bologna, July 25, 2026 – To speak of Fakir means to speak of a person and not just of an event. Fakir is more than a freeze-frame, it is more than a scream covered in pixels, it is more than that last terrible jolt and then silence. Silence and the need for answers that the blood on the asphalt demands. First of all, it is necessary to reason about psychological distress and the failure of the system, its atrophied reactivity, the loneliness of families and individuals, the struggle of the health-social-security network, its chronic organic and structural deficiencies, even in one of the most advanced regions of Europe, let alone in the rest of Italy.
Read more Fakir’s last months: from the ‘pilgrimage’ among different municipalities to psychological suffering
This is evidenced by the man’s hospital ordeal, who died after a tragic police intervention forever crystallized in cellphone and officer cameras, with those videos that chilled us and went around the world. This is evidenced by the spasmodic traces left by Fakir in the health services: a shroud.
It means painfully, before condemning or shouting, accepting our fragilities and those of a country that therefore fails to intercept the needs of people in difficulty and delegates them, for a thousand reasons, many of which are to be censored, to those who do not have a scientific preparation. Tools are needed to address distress and not leave mental health services or law enforcement alone. This is because society changes and with it the urgencies.
It is a civil duty to also reason about containment and health intervention techniques, certainly not to attack law enforcement or rescuers, but because we all need more security and therefore all (agents and operators first and foremost) need greater protection. The death of Federico Aldrovandi, the shameful omissions and misdirections in those investigations, tore open a dark clot twenty years ago. May that sacrifice, what happened subsequently, and then the discussions and other trials be an impetus to look deeply, to give more strength to the system, to evaluate (and if proven, condemn) according to law, not to weaken it or preemptively put it to the guillotine.
Read more “Lepore, now we’ll shoot you”, escort for the mayor. He will be protected by two agents
Twenty years ago nothing was intelligible, much was opaque; now there are bodycams, everything is documented. The only solid rock to cling to is trust in public servants combined with the ascertainment of any responsibility, in the light of scientific evidence.
Speaking of Fakir is important. Then there is the party clash, which now makes everything more like a football match (me against you, us against you, resign I won’t resign) and loses sight of the substance for the continuous electoral campaign, so much so that citizens will soon have the opportunity to express themselves; and then the institutional clash, evident and tragic in the fracture that led Mayor Matteo Lepore to inform about Monday’s protest only after the decision was made, via press and social media, to the Prefecture and Police Headquarters (a factual circumstance documented by the investigative work of Carlino that cannot be dismissed as a storm in a teacup, and not for an administrative issue, but because dialogue is substance and not form); and finally the responsibilities for the city’s devastation, which are above all a reflection of fifty years – from ’77 to today – of a certain cultural climate and dangerous laxity.
It is necessary to rebuild a climate: the threat that goes beyond criticism is unacceptable and, therefore, that a mayor should end up under escort. All solidarity goes to Lepore. We must lower the tones, without bowing our heads. Ultimately, a new grammar is needed. Bologna is a city reborn many times from the rubble, from the War to August 2nd, and for this reason no one should shut themselves in the chasm of solitude.
