Sabino Cassese wins the “Alberto Arbasino” award

Sabino Cassesewith the book Poverty and nobility of Italy. Dialogues on the state of the nation (Solferino), is the winner of the new one Alberto Arbasino Award, born on the initiative of the mayor of Voghera, Paola Garlaschelli, together with the writer Giorgio Montefoschi, president of the jury, and with the contribution of the Cariplo Foundation.

Sabino Cassese, 88 years old, minister of the Civil Service in the Ciampi government and judge emeritus of the Constitutional Court, was awarded, underlines the motivation, as “internationally renowned jurist, man of institutions, refined European intellectual who with his latest book ‘ Poverty and nobility of Italy paints a memorable portrait of our country”.

The awards ceremony took place on Sunday in the Voghera Theatre, reopened to the public following a meticulous restoration after forty years of closure and now named after another illustrious citizen, Valentino Garavani. During the meeting, preceded by institutional greetings from the mayor Paola Garlaschelli and the councilor for culture Carlo Fugini, the jurors present – Elisabetta Rasy, Raffaele Manica, Alessandro Masi and president Montefoschi – shared memories and testimonies with the public to celebrate Alberto Arbasino.

Present in the room were Giorgio Pinotti, editor in chief at Adelphi, who, since the 1990s, has followed Arbasino’s works in the publishing house, and Carlo Alberto Brioschi, editor of Italian fiction and non-fiction for Solferino, where the book was published. Sabino Cassese’s latest book. The meeting was coordinated by Antonio Calabrò, director of the Pirelli Foundation. The Alberto Arbasino Prize was created “with the intention of giving recognition every year to a personality in Italian fiction or non-fiction whose books and work can be compared, in terms of merit and prominence, to the figure of the great writer from Voghera”.