Dear Marco,

I would like to answer all the questions and points you brought to my attention both when we last met at the Quirinale and with the letters and the documents you sent me recently.

I think Italy owes you a just recognition for the determination you showed in fighting so many battles aimed at obtaining the full respect and protection of the civil rights and freedoms of its citizens.

Some of the issues which stirred and aroused public opinion in our country over the course of the last decades have now become part of the cultural heritage of a large part of Italian society. I refer to divorce, abortion legislation, recognition of the right to conscientious objection, pluralism in information, protection of the environment and the need, addressed with unquestionable foresight, to fight and eradicate hunger in the world and to eliminate the death penalty in all countries.

The good use you made of the instrument of the referendum as an element of direct democracy and the close attention you focussed on the rules governing the participation of citizens in elections are evidence of your constant concern that citizens and public opinion are kept well-informed and actively involved in the country’s political life, and of your determination to oppose and fight against all forms of disenchantment and disinterest towards public life.

Such results, which helped surmount paralyzing ideological barriers, were obtained with the significant contribution of movements – such as those which you personally promoted – that aimed to make public debate free of any party-political prejudices serve as an essential channel for the enrichment of democracy.

Your most recent battles find me particularly receptive – and I refer to your efforts to ensure that the problem of overcrowding in prisons is energetically pursued as well as your fight to improve the conditions faced by prisoners and to ensure that justice is administered with scrupulous attention to all the aspects involved in a serene and sober manner. I can assure you that I shall continue – as I have done repeatedly during my mandate and today, more than ever, feel it urgent to do – to bring such problems to the attention of all the institutional parties responsible and to urge them to adopt all necessary administrative, organizational and legislative measures. Underestimation and fatalism are not to be countenanced in the face of situations that are dramatically incompatible with the respect of people’s dignity and with the need to provide an efficient “justice service” guaranteeing the fundamental rights of citizens – a service that needs to be exercised by independent and impartial judges with the scrupulousness and balance I have always called for.

In a society which has changed profoundly in many ways from the years when you embarked on your political career there is today a greater need than ever for examples of civil passion and of care for the public good so that it can be fully recognized that politics serve not only to examine, and mediate between, respective interests but also to understand and reconcile the tensions between opposing ideals. I believe your work will continue to be a precious stimulus and will, as in the past, kindle debate and public awareness in a way that over time turn out to be enriching as well as far-sighted.

In sending you my best wishes and all my affection I would ask you – in the name not only of our old friendship but of the general interest – to refrain from any extreme forms of protest whose sense of urgency I appreciate but which today are liable to endanger seriously your health and physical integrity.