Lazio, the centre-right candidate is Francesco Rocca: the president's parting words to the Italian Red Cross
Lawyer Francesco Rocca resigns from the Red Cross and runs for the centre-right in the Lazio Region
It is now official: Francesco Rocca will be the centre-right’s candidate to lead the Lazio Region
He himself announced this when he submitted his resignation from the Italian Red Cross: ‘I have decided to tender my resignation as national president of the Italian Red Cross because I have chosen to make myself available to the territory.
As a public health expert, I think I can bring added value: I have accepted a new challenge in which I strongly believe,’ he wrote in a long letter published on the association’s website.
‘I wanted to step away from my role immediately to avoid any possible instrumentalisation and to protect our Association and all of you,’ he added.
THE LONG LETTER OF FRANCESCO ROCCA
Dear Italian Red Cross Volunteers,
let me even say Sisters and Brothers of an extraordinary life journey, let me first of all confide to all of you that writing this letter is not at all easy.
But you are the first to whom, as I have always done over the years, I intend to turn.
In well over a decade, you have accompanied me, step by step, to give shape to an ambitious and visionary path of reform, growth and rebirth of our beloved Association, always making me feel your closeness, your support and, of course, also your constructive criticism, as one does in a family.
I want to thank you for this fantastic journey that we have shared and that has marked and changed my life.
Thank you for participating.
Thank you for sharing.
Thank you for criticising.
But, above all, thank you for always putting our Association and our Fundamental Principles before everything and everyone.
We have demonstrated this, together, in every emergency, large or small. From the tents in Amatrice or L’Aquila, to the vaccination centres or the ambulances in Codogno.
Or on the quarantine ships and in every landing of human beings, to the activities for the homeless or the new poor.
We have grown day by day and have been present, where necessary, intercepting new vulnerabilities and reaching into the many, too many, grey areas of our communities.
We suffered together during the pandemic, including the devastating loss of our Volunteers, our Brothers.
We rejoiced at having reformed our beloved Red Cross, completely independent and back in the hands of those who wear the Emblem every day.
I could give a thousand examples to illustrate the importance of your work, I could tell you a thousand stories about me/us: I will carry them in my heart and they will always be a source of inspiration in my journey.
I am lucky because I have been, am and will always be a Red Cross man.
One’s essence cannot be changed, what is imprinted in one’s soul resonates in every gesture, action and future choice.
You already knew that my cycle in the Italian Red Cross was coming to an end.
Today we have reached that difficult moment, which is very painful for me.
But I am announcing it with no regrets, because you have known for a long time how convinced I am that our Association is in need of a change of personnel, of new forces and new ideas to take it towards unthinkable successes and future goals.
I have decided to tender my resignation as National President of the Italian Red Cross because I have chosen to make myself available to the territory.
As a public health expert, I think I can bring added value: I have accepted a new challenge in which I strongly believe.
I wanted to step down from my role immediately to avoid any possible instrumentalisation and to protect our Association and all of you.
At the same time, an orderly transition will be ensured with the National Vice-President, Rosario Valastro, who will be the Acting President until the next elections to be held, as per the Rules, in early 2023.
I know that some will not be happy with this decision, but life is made of forks in the road, and at a time when an unforgettable path would have come to an end anyway, I wanted to take a new path where, however, my skills can still be at the service of the community.
Needless to say, I am and will be available in the future to talk about this choice: as always, you will find my door open.
I want to make you a solemn promise: in this new journey, in this new chapter of my life, I will not use the Red Cross for electoral purposes, nor will I allow anyone to do so.
Instead, I will always remain a CRI volunteer who will firmly adhere to its Principles and take them with me into the institutions.
The lessons of these years will remain: I will not cease to support and give voice, wherever I am, to the most fragile.
My heart is filled with emotions, conflicting and immense.
My mind recognises the unique and absolute value of what I have experienced and learned.
My soul is full of gratitude, because all of you have made me what I am.
It is a difficult day, but one that does not taste like a farewell, nor will it ever.
Hurray for the Italian Red Cross!
Francesco Rocca
THE TRIO OF NAMES
Born in 1965, Francesco Rocca is the resigning president of the Italian Red Cross and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
The choice fell on him within the trio of names proposed by Giorgia Meloni to the Forza Italia and Lega allies: the other two were Chamber of Deputies vice-president Fabio Rampelli and former Terracina mayor Nicola Procaccini.
The choice to go through a trio was necessary to avoid internal controversy.
The candidature of Rampelli, a very strong name in the capital, did not have the consensus within the entire Fratelli d’Italia party.
For this reason, a way out was sought that would avoid heavy internal dramas.
Thus, in addition to an impeccable civic name, a ‘loyalist’ of Giorgia Meloni, Procaccini, was also included in the trio.
For the two political candidates, it was the reasoning, this would be an honourable exit in favour of a ‘third’ name.
WHO IS FRANCESCO ROCCA
A 57-year-old lawyer, Rocca has a past in the world of voluntary work: first with the Jesuit Refugee Service, then with Caritas, and finally with the Cottolengo Piccola Casa della Divina Provvidenza.
He became a lawyer and practised from 1990 to 2003.
In the second half of the 1990s, he was in the front line in the fight against the Mafia and, because of this, he was forced to live under police protection for five years.
Francesco Rocca as a candidate for the Lazio Region will be able to bring up a past in the world of healthcare
He was commissioner of the Sant’Andrea Hospital in Rome from 2002 and then managing director of the same hospital until 2007.
He was also a member of the board of directors of the National Institute for Infectious Diseases ‘Lazzaro Spallanzani’ in Rome from 2007 to 2010 and of the evaluation nucleus of the National Cancer Institute – IRCSS Fondazione Pascale in Naples from 2005 to 2009.
Finally, he was extraordinary commissioner of Asl Napoli 2 in 2011 and general director of the IDI in 2017.
In 2017, he was elected President of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, the first Italian in history to hold the prestigious position.
In May 2020, he was reconfirmed for the third time at the helm of the Italian Red Cross.
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