1975

June 16, Naples
Iolanda Palladino, 20 years old, student

It was June 17, 1975, a historic and memorable date for the city of Naples due to the electoral victory of the PCI in the local elections of that year and because it was the first time in the history of the city that a communist Mayor was elected. The result of the polls, which led to the election of Maurizio Valenzi, is unprecedented: the counting of the ballots showed a clear success of the PCI and a retreat of the DC.
That evening in the city the air was crisp and it was very hot. Iolanda leaves the house in search of a telephone booth because she needed to talk to her boyfriend. However, the neighborhood in which she lived was affected by a telephone network failure and so Iolanda decided to join her boyfriend with her 500 in Piazza Carlo III at Cinema 2000. She spoke to her boyfriend and after a while she got into the car to go home and , despite her boyfriend’s insistence to accompany her back, Iolanda left alone and unaware she met her tragic and fatal fate.
There was great euphoria in the city, many took to the streets in a procession to celebrate an expected victory and in a short time the historic center was filled with cars and red flags. Among those cars there was also the light blue 500 driven by Iolanda which was traveling along Via Foria, one of the historic streets of the city which extends from Piazza Carlo III to Piazza Cavour through the Stella, San Carlo all’Arena and San Lorenzo districts. It was around 10pm, the young woman could not have known that, hidden behind the steps of Via Tenore, near the Botanical Garden, a group of fascists had decided to teach a lesson to anyone who had decided to celebrate the victory of the PCI. The Berta section (of which MSI municipal councilor Michele Florino, known as “Nicolino ‘o crazy”) at number 169 of Via Foria was closed, in fact, its militants had prepared Molotov cocktails to throw on the cars that were crossing the city in celebration , to give vent to their anger at the outcome of the elections.
Even though it was evening, it was really very hot. So Iolanda decides to open the roof of her 500: that’s when a Molotov cocktail also hit the young girl’s car who, on fire, got out of the car to ask for help. She was rescued by Vincenzo Giacco and Orlando Giannuzzi Savelli and accompanied in desperate conditions to the Incurables hospital.
The joy of an expected victory was soon shattered by the news of the criminal act which attempted the life of a young woman aged just 21.
Iolanda was subsequently transferred to Rome where she died on June 21st after four days of atrocious suffering due to the severe burns reported all over her body. Sandro Pertini, then President of the Chamber, paid homage to her at her morgue in Rome.
On June 24, her funeral was held at the Chiesa del Carmine in Naples. The girl’s body was greeted by thousands of students and workers who, together with Neapolitan communists and anti-fascists, marched silently in procession towards Via Foria. In the place where Iolanda died, waiting for her coffin and the crowd of people was a deployment of police forces ready to defend the Berta section. The pain was interrupted by anger at a fascist banner bearing the words “Only God can stop the fascist will, not men and things”. An unprecedented violence that does not stop even in the face of the pain of the family, of her companions and of an entire city that raises its head and rallies around Iolanda. The Berta Section is still there, it has moved from the Social Movement to Casapound.
In 2015, thanks to the administration of Luigi de Magistris, the young woman was remembered with the placing of a plaque in her memory right on the steps of Via Foria, because “remembering” is a duty to be paid to those who lose their lives by violent and criminal hands, a commitment towards the families of the victims, towards the community and the city, but even before all of us who live our time without resignation.