The new year starts with the news that the Barga musician Andrea Guzzoletti, who has appeared on these pages many, many times – (not just for his music but also for the images be took whilst walking many thousands of kilometres on the Camino de Santiago ) has just embarked on a new adventure – he has put himself up for election to the Senato della Repubblica – The Senate of the Republic.
A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature or parliament. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: Senatus), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: senex meaning “the elder” or “old man”) and therefore allegedly wiser and more experienced members of the society or ruling class. Thus, the literal meaning of the word “senate” is Assembly of Elders.
The Senate of the Republic (Italian: for the Senato della Repubblica ) is a house of the bicameral Italian Parliament (the other being the Chamber of Deputies). The two houses together form a perfect bicameral system, meaning they perform identical functions, but do so separately. Pursuant to Articles 57, 58, and 59 of the Italian Constitution, the Senate has a variable number of members, of which 309 are elected from Italian constituencies, 6 from Italian citizens living abroad, and a small number (currently 5) are senators for life (senatori a vita), either appointed or ex officio.
Andrea came into the barganews office and spent one hour talking about his decision to see if it is possible to enter politics directly and at a high-level (the conversation is in Italian)
A tutti gli amici e conoscenti vorrei precisare per onestà che per il momento mi sono solo messo a disposizione del Movimento per le parlamentarie. E’ importante precisarlo perchè nel Moviemento non ci si candida, ma si da una disponibilità, dopo di che saranno gli attivisti iscritti al portale che decideranno quali saranno i candidati alle prossime elezioni attraverso le votazioni on line – Andrea Guzzoletti