by Daniele Scalea

What if the June 2 military parade was moved to November 4? There is more than one reason that would justify the move.

First of all, the anniversary of June 2 has no bearing on the Armed Forces and their history. As is well known, June 2 celebrates the end of the monarchy and the beginning of the republic, which was decided by popular referendum. November 4, on the other hand, is the anniversary of the greatest military victory in modern Italian history (the one in World War I, which for us was also the culmination of the Wars of Independence).

November 4 is already recognized as Armed Forces Day and was a national holiday until 1976. Despite a modest "rediscovery" of this celebration, it still remains very much underplayed today because it is disliked by the dominant culture that is anti-national and anti-patriotic. Keeping the military parade on that day would have a tremendous effect of reviving the celebration, useful in promoting a rediscovery of patriotism among Italians.

Other nations hold military parades on the anniversary of a war victory, as is only logical. The most famous case is Russia, with the parade on May 9 (victory in World War II), but one could also mention Greece (March 25, beginning of the revolution against Turkish rule) and Turkey (August 30, victory in the Battle of Dumlupınar against the Greeks), to remain in our geographical area.

Other nations hold the military parade on dates that do not coincide with war events: this is the case in France, with July 14 celebrating the beginning of the Revolution. However, for the French, July 14 is also the national holiday. The same cannot be said for Italy with June 2, since our national holiday falls on April 25. But April 25 is a date that has been seized upon - also for well-founded historical reasons - by a specific political faction, the communist and post-communist side, which by its nature is anti-militarist. No one could imagine a military parade amid the red flags that usually populate April 25 demonstrations.

Moving the parade from June 2 to Nov. 4 would also mean giving full dignity and a leading role back to its military dimension. With the excuse that June 2 does not celebrate the Armed Forces or a war victory, but the form of state government, the parade has been progressively "watered down," adding to the military segments the parade of mayors, civil protection, civil service, law enforcement, this year even medical personnel. Considering that June is also the month of "LGBTQ pride," it will not be many years before representatives of various "non-canonical" sexual orientations are also called to parade. After all, it was only in 2019 when the Minister of Defense and the Speaker of the House, for no reason whatsoever, dedicated the June 2 holiday to "Roma, migrants and Sinti."

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At the tail end of all these reasons, there is finally a very pragmatic one. For the preparation of the grandstands, even pedestrian circulation on Via dei Fori Imperiali has been seriously impaired for three weeks. At a time when Rome is already in the throes of the tourist season, visitors are funneled into narrow, fenced passages, prevented from seeing some of the attractions of one of the most famous streets in the world. And that is not for a day, but for weeks at a time. By contrast, late October and early November is now in the off-season for tourism and the impact would be reduced. Of course: the risk of rain would be higher, but in return one would enjoy milder temperatures.

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Founder and President of Centro Studi Machiavelli. A graduate in History (University of Milan) and Ph.D. in Political Studies (Sapienza University), he teaches “History and Doctrine of Jihadism” at Marconi University and “Geopolitics of the Middle East” at Cusano University, where he has also taught on Islamic extremism in the past.

From 2018 to 2019, he served as Special Advisor on Immigration and Terrorism to Undersecretary for Foreign Affairs Guglielmo Picchi; he later served as head of the technical secretariat of the President of the Parliamentary Delegation to the Central European Initiative (CEI).

Author of several books, including Immigration: the reasons of populists, which has also been translated into Hungarian.