The parliamentary term of the Pci's Gino Paoli: the honorable man who thought about music and youth

"The legislative delay has caused an isolation and a mortification of Italian 'extracultural' music that has made it uncompetitive with Anglo-American music," for which "music from abroad is preferred every day," forcing "our artists, in order not to succumb, to imitate musical forms completely foreign to their own musical tradition." This was written by Honorable Gino Paoli, elected to the Chamber in 1987 from the ranks of the Italian Communist Party (but who would later join the Independent Left group), in one of the three bills he sponsored during his only term (the tenth).

These were times of voter turnout exceeding 88%. In addition to a crowd of amusing candidacies: for the PCI, there was also director Giorgio Strehler, in the DC team the former footballer Gianni Rivera, for the PSI the presenter Gerry Scotti, for Democrazia Proletaria Paolo Villaggio ran, and, above all, among the Radicals were Domenico Modugno and former porn star Ilona Staller. The majority would be made up of the Pentapartito (replaced between 1991 and 1992 by the Quadripartito) and Goria, De Mita, and Andreotti (twice: VI and VII) would take turns as Prime Minister.

Paoli described his experience in Montecitorio as "a mistake", because "I am not suited" for politics, he believed, which "wants compromise, mediation, while I am very direct. I couldn't do anything, but I learned a lot."

In his name, browsing the historical portal of the Chamber of Deputies, there are three bills that have little to do with the Commission to which he was assigned, that of Transport, posts, and telecommunications. The one mentioned above, from 1988, focused on the "Enhancement and protection of Italian light music." It provided for the "protection of 'extracultural' musical works as intellectual works" with subsidies for authors, performers, cooperatives, and musical groups taken from the single fund for entertainment, 10% of which would be reserved for "activities and events related to 'extracultural' music." Among the initiatives was also the integration of the National Council for Entertainment with two representatives from the sector, tax benefits, and the extension of the duration of copyright protection "to 70 years after the author's death for musical works and compositions."

In 1989, Paoli presented a project to obtain "Incentives for the artistic activity and expression of young people." The presentation text states that "the almost complete lack of material opportunities and incentives for engaging in associated activities causes, over time, both in non-working and working hours, situations of severe existential loneliness, in which the development of serious social distress finds space." These are discussions that are still heard today. The singer-songwriter proposed "multi-year interventions by municipalities for the promotion of artistic and cultural activities" with costs of 50 billion lire for each year (1990, 1991, and 1992) through the "preparation" of "structures and buildings, as well as the equipment deemed necessary for carrying out production and experimentation activities" whose management would then be entrusted "by concession to non-profit citizen associations" made up of those under 30.

Finally, in 1991, Paoli proposed "Interventions for the establishment of facilities for light music shows and events." It involved municipalities with at least 100,000 inhabitants, which could thus create structures with at least 3,000 seats with maximum contributions of one billion lire and which, in any case, could not exceed 40% of the expenditure. However, as happens with many parliamentary initiatives, all of Paoli's proposals stalled in the first reading.