Twenty-one years ago he was assassinated by a commando of the BR, at his house, in via Valdonica in Bologna, a stone's throw from the Two Towers, Professor Marco Biagi who was returning home from Modena where he taught in the Faculty of Economics.
As the president of the Senate wrote then Marcellus Pera, Biagi was ''defended only by his bicycle''. In many years we have had the opportunity to tell many times the 'announced chronicle' of that death, the desperation with which Marco asked for help and protection because he was not only threatened through anonymous phone calls, but he had been living for months in a hostile context, even in the world of academia, for collaborating with the Berlusconi government and with the minister Roberto Maroni and the undersecretary Maurizio Sacconi and having registered the White Paper on the labor market and the bill that was passed after his death as the Biagi law (law n.30 of 2003 which was mentioned a few weeks ago on the twentieth anniversary).
Marco Biagi: the initiatives of the Biagi Foundation and Adapt
Like every year, a series of events are organized in the days preceding and on March 19th initiatives in Bolognaa, in the square dedicated to him, in the municipal council and in the church of his parish. But the commitments of a cultural/juridical nature promoted by the are undoubtedly more significant Biagi Foundation (of which the widow Marina Orlandi is the tireless promoter who also carried out a liaison action with the families of other victims of terrorism) and by Adapt, the study center now permanently installed in the University of Bergamo which has become in recent years a breeding ground for young talents under the guidance of Michele Tiraboschi, Biagi's favorite pupil.
Maurice Sacconi who was very close to Marco and who has become one of the staunchest defenders of his memory, recalls that the professor, then a consultant to the minister and aware of the risks he was running, recommended that he contact Tiraboschi, in case that happened to him which then happened, because his pupil was in possession of all Marco's elaboration. In fact it was then Michele - after Biagi's death - who worked on the drafting of the implementing delegated decrees of law 30.
Adapt manages a weekly online Bulletin which provides documentation and enriches the labor law debate, encouraging those carrying out research activities to engage in investigating current topics.
Adapt has international relations and organizes conferences in which study centers of other universities participate, in accordance with the role that Biagi entrusted to benchmarking to identify innovative solutions in labor policies. Very important it is the editorial activity of Adapt: the online one is distributed for free. Very useful is the periodic monitoring of collective bargaining and corporate welfare.
The essays by Sacconi and Tiraboschi on Marco Biagi
In recent years, the volume of the publishing business proper has grown. In 2022 (the year of the twenty years of the killing) some volumes dedicated to new types of work and bargaining were published by Adapt University Press (the name of the publishing house).
Two short essays deserve special mention: one written by Tiraboschi – Marco Biagi, Twenty years later'' who imagines an ''impossible interview'' with the Maestro to comment on the events and the regulatory activity that has taken place in the last twenty years; the other edited by Maurice Sacconi It is entitled ''Biagi's way. Dictionary of the modernity of work'', which explains the main concepts of Biagi's thought and action.
This essay has a cover which in itself is an act of affection and friendship. There is an oil painting on canvas (''Cyclist'') by Enzo Benedetto, from 1926. Luigi Montuschi wrote about it, with reference to the bicycle: ''Biagi pedaled forward with his bicycle and behind it was hard to keep up''. For Adapt ''This anniversary is an opportunity to document the genesis and evolution of that labor market modernization project, reflect on its system and philosophy, verify its implementation and what of the law survives today, up to evaluate, if possible, the extent and topicality in a social and economic context such as ours, where it is possible to find elements of continuity with the historical moment in which the Biagi law took shape but also considerable differences due to the impact of the various transformations in deed''. The realization of this goal is entrusted to the new publication of Adapt University Press: ''Design to modernize. The Biagi law twenty years later''.
