This is the story of an ordinary man, Gino Cecchettin, who could have let himself be swept away by hatred — and perhaps no one could have blamed him — yet who instead chose "to spread love within his own ecosystem". In our society, which needs it so much. And it is also the story of an extraordinary man, Giuseppe Valditara, a government minister, who instead chose to do the opposite. A tragedy in three acts, with the memory of Giulia — Gino's daughter, the victim of a femicide that sometimes seems to have changed the perceived urgency of combating gender-based violence — as a backdrop. But sometimes, still, it has not.

Act I: Gino Cecchettin's act of love

For the first of the two, a year ago around this time, the hope of seeing his very young daughter alive again was shattered — Giulia Cecchettin, victim of femicide. A year later, yesterday, Gino Cecchettin presented at the Chamber of Deputies the Fondazione Giulia Cecchettin, which bears his daughter's name and aims to help and give hope to the many women who are victims of violence at the hands of a partner, an ex-partner, or a family member. Because "since the day my Giulia was taken from us, another 120 women have been killed in Italy alone. Thousands and thousands worldwide. Unimaginable numbers."

As always, Gino Cecchettin did so with clear, lucid, moving words. And loving ones. "In these months I have come to realise how much focusing on positive feelings leads to acting in a constructive way. I did it out of a need not to be overwhelmed by the hatred that would have annihilated me as a person." In this way Gino Cecchettin discovered a new way of living, one more oriented towards understanding how to contribute "to improving the world I live in".

There is a precise moment at which Gino Cecchettin says he reached full awareness of this state of mind: during the hearing involving Filippo Turetta, Giulia's killer. The most difficult moment. "I felt a searing pain for what Giulia had suffered, but I could not feel the slightest hint of anger, indignation, resentment or rage towards my daughter's murderer." On the evening of the hearing, on his way home, "I had time to reflect and to imagine our world as an ecosystem where every individual has the capacity and the free will to inject hatred or love into society." And so: "in Giulia's name I can only choose to let love grow, because that is the only choice that resembles her, the only possible one if I want to keep a part of her alive."

Act II: The Fondazione Giulia Cecchettin

The other protagonist of this story is Giuseppe Valditara, Minister of Education and Merit. A year ago, also around this time, just days after the femicide of Giulia Cecchettin, the minister presented to the Senate the Educare alle relazioni plan, which was supposed to have launched in September 2023 but has still never got off the ground, and which simply provides for extracurricular meetings in upper secondary schools only, for a total of 12 sessions (and 30 hours, apparently spread across the school year), based on "self-awareness" sessions among students conducted occasionally with sector experts and teachers acting as optional mediators.

Perhaps the Fondazione Giulia Cecchettin will do better: its mission is to promote a culture of respect and affectivity, with particular attention to young people, through educational projects and awareness campaigns. The Foundation will also offer legal support, psychological counselling and socio-economic assistance, in collaboration with other organisations and institutions.

Act III: Valditara's statements on feminism and migrants

Appearing via video message at the same launch event for the foundation, yesterday Valditara first declared the patriarchy dead and buried: "we have two ways" to defeat gender-based violence, he said: "one is concrete and inspired by constitutional values, the other is ideological culture. And the ideological vision is the one that would resolve the women's issue by fighting against the patriarchy." A patriarchy which "as a legal phenomenon ended with the 1975 family law reform" and at most "there are still residual traces of male chauvinism and machismo that must be combated, which manifest themselves in workplace discrimination, catcalling, outright violence, and of course femicide."

He then did the opposite of what Gino Cecchettin is trying to do — namely, stoking social resentments, attacking immigration in a context, such as the Cecchettin case, that has nothing whatsoever to do with it. "We must not pretend not to see that the increase in phenomena of sexual violence is also linked to forms of marginalisation and deviance stemming in some way from illegal immigration. The scope of our Constitution, which does not permit discrimination on the grounds of sex, must be clear to every newcomer, to all those who wish to live alongside us," Valditara concluded — contradicted, however, by official Istat data according to which 80 per cent of sexual violence is committed by Italian men, partners or ex-partners of the victims. Many people, however, will end up believing his words, reinforcing a social stigma that is already strongly entrenched.