During the political demonstration in Atreju, University Minister Anna Maria Bernini was challenged by a group of medical students opposed to the recent reform of the “filter semester”. Young people have questioned the new system of access to the faculties of medicine, dentistry and veterinary science which requires enrollment to pass three specific exams (chemistry, physics and biology) after three months of lessons, arguing that it increases the risk of losing an academic year. The Minister initially responded by quoting a phrase from Silvio Berlusconi «You are still poor communists», followed by «Learn to listen before arguing” And “You are useless», to then get off the stage and open a direct discussion with the students. And it is precisely on those words, even before the contents, that we need to focus.
There is one point that cannot be ignored: a minister cannot afford to speak to a single citizen in that way.
Not for a question of form, but of substance.
Anyone who holds an institutional position of this level never speaks only “in a personal capacity”. Every word carries with it the weight of the institution it represents. And it is precisely here that a deeper problem emerges: the feeling that there is not full awareness of the importance of the very concept of minister.
A minister is not simply a political figure. It is a model, a reference, an example of balance, responsibility and measure. He is someone who, even in dissent, should embody respect for people and the role he occupies. When this does not happen, the individual interlocutor is not devalued: the office itself is devalued.
And it’s a serious matter.
Because we are faced with the progressive devaluation of one of the most important functions of the country: that of guiding the knowledge, training and cultural growth of the new generations.
The problem is not criticism, nor heated confrontation. The problem is the attitude. It is the wrong idea that from a position of power one can renounce the responsibility of being an example. That we can talk “like anyone else”, forgetting that that role exists precisely to be something different.
For this reason, more than a controversy, this is an evaluation, and like any evaluation, it has an outcome. Minister, you can do much better; go back to “September”.
