Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
school when the time came to enroll their children in infant and then primary
school.
pisacane's notoriety was interpreted by many italian families as the conse-
quence of the incipient “ethnic diversity,” provoking italians to distance them-
selves further. having started as a school for (italian) problem families, pisacane
ended up by being “the immigrants' school” without losing its negative image—
indeed seeing it reinforced.
but while the number of italian children was steadily falling, the immigrants
in the district continued to send their children to pisacane, and it was this unbal-
anced ratio between italians and foreigners that at the end of 2007 prompted a
group of parents to form a committee that was self-styled—without any irony—
as moms for integration. The entrenched inadequacy of pisacane was interpreted
by the committee as a direct consequence of the presence of immigrants. at the
political level, this was argued as having been caused by the excessively left-wing
policies of the school's management and some of the teachers. after years in
which the gossiping and negative judgments had been expressed in chitchat be-
tween individuals, pisacane was now being attacked publicly.
This politicized interpretation soon aroused institutional interest. The first
person to make himself publicly heard was fabio Rampelli, a member of par-
liament belonging to the pDl (il popolo della libertà, italy's main center-right
party). he had a long history of right-wing political activism in Rome and was
a leading light from the 1980s in the fronte della Gioventù (the youth section
of the then “movimento sociale italiano”) in Colle oppio. There Rampelli had
come to know the marsilio family, two boys and a girl, who lived a few steps
from marranella. The four of them formed a friendship that was to lead laura
marsilio to be elected several times from 1993 onward as a local councilor in the
sixth borough (the torpignattara municipio ), a position that enabled her to get
to know the district and its residents very well (meanwhile her brother marco
would be elected to the first municipio, in the center). after being elected regional
councilor in lazio, Rampelli entered parliament with marco marsilio in 2006,
and he was elected again in 2008, this time forming part of the majority coalition,
thanks to the italian right's victory under the leadership of silvio berlusconi, who
appointed the young lawyer mariastella Gelmini (pDl) as minister for public
education. but fabio Rampelli's new parliamentary role by no means led him
to forget his old companions and their many political battles. when after many
years, the left lost control of Rome in the municipal elections of may 2008, the
new mayor Gianni alemanno (who had a political background similar to that of
Rampelli) invited laura marsilio to join his team and made her the city councilor
for education and schools.
The very strong political ties between member of parliament Rampelli and
the marsilio family, on the one hand, and between laura marsilio and the sixth
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