In this period of objective difficulty, the role that active citizenship can take is fundamental to give the signal that in Italy there is more, and that the population is enormously richer in awareness and civil sense than Italian themselves assumed. We know we don't live in a perfect world, there are citizens who convey fake news, but also socially responsible citizens.
During the current Coronavirus crisis, for example, active citizens can be producers of social information. Civic information touches everyday reality and does not concern only impressions. Making civic information means aggregating, creating networks and alliances, having a clear will to change things. Therefore, the role of active citizens and groups that promote active citizenship is important. For this reason, as Cittadinanzattiva we decided to network with general practitioners, to open a webpage on our website, to make our offices available for all citizens who want to receive or give information. In this way, we believe to play a useful role from at least two points of view: first, we produce daily civic information and data. Afterwards, we use this knowledge to do activities and to promote politics that connect interlocutors and improve things.
Because if information is sustaining a political view, which is aimed to change things, it becomes an extraordinary aggregation tool. Not only of citizens as such, but also of social and economic actors that decide to take a common path, because they consider possible that things can be changed. We are convinced that civic networks can play a great role as they are in contact with the people and their reality. For this reason, the role of civil and active society is to connect institutions and communities: in times of coronavirus, where institutional communication does not arrive, civil society arrives.
Antonio Gaudioso, Secretary General at Cittadinanzattiva APS
* translation of the interview issued by Antonio Gaudioso to Vita and published on 26th February 2020. For the full text, click here (IT).
