CARRARA. Two months ago to the day, on July 15, she went to the Lipari town hall for a very simple procedure, which she had already done several times without any issues: renewing her identity card.
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The Municipality of Apuania
And there, for the first time, at 82 years old, they told her that she was not born in Carrara, where she was actually born on July 30, 1944, nor, just in case, in Massa, where her family is and where she lived most of her life, but in Apuania, a municipality that existed only for eight years, from 1938 to 1946, due to the geopolitical whims of the Duce who wanted at all costs to unite the marble of Carrara, the steel of Massa, and the land of Montignoso into a single gigantic and autarkic “city of marble,” wiping out centuries of local rivalries with a stroke of the sponge. After Mussolini, everything returned to how it was before.
The bureaucratic case
In that municipality that no longer exists, however, about 10,000 people were born in the meantime, just under half of whom are still alive. And among them is Anna Maria Tonazzini, who now lives in Vulcano but is, in fact, from Massa. “It had never happened to me before,” she tells Il Tirreno. “Every time I went to renew my identity card, they indicated Carrara as my place of birth. This time they told me they couldn’t find me in the database, neither in Carrara nor in Massa. They only found me in that of Apuania. But by changing the place of birth, the tax code also changed, so everything changed.”
The woman’s story
Anna Maria Tonazzini was born precisely in Bedizzano, a district of the municipality of Carrara. “We were evacuated from Massa,” she recounts. “At that time, everyone was born outside their own municipalities.” After the war, the family returned to their city. “I have always renewed my identity card without problems,” she recalls. This time, no. This time Apuania was resurrected directly from the fascist regime. And it couldn’t go well.
“They also changed my tax code, and already the doctor couldn’t write me a prescription.” After all, the tax code is our bureaucratic DNA. If you change that, for the State you are no longer you, like in the fantastic world of Alice in Wonderland where “what is is not, and what is not, would be.” But this is reality, and having a clear identity is necessary.
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And now? Between effects and outburst
The tax code is the universal access key in the State’s databases. If it changes, the person is literally split in the eyes of bureaucracy. This causes imminent health problems: the woman is no longer connected to her general practitioner, her age exemptions, and her electronic prescriptions in the regional health record. Bank accounts and utilities are frozen: banks and electricity and gas companies carry out anti-money laundering and identity checks. If the data on the new identity card do not match those registered at the bank, operations on the account are blocked. “For two months I have been asking for money because I can no longer withdraw. I can’t even drive because my driver’s license is no longer valid,” she continues. “For the State, I do not exist at this moment.”
The first solution would be to adapt everything (banks, doctor, bills) to the new tax code. “Do you understand what that means? It’s an enormous effort, I am 82 years old and I am not even skilled with online bureaucracy. I have no intention of doing it. Also because I am the only one this has happened to. Other people born in that period who have renewed their identity cards are recorded as born in the usual municipality; they did not have to change anything. Either they change the place of birth for everyone or I have no intention of adapting. Otherwise, I remain the only one born in the municipality of Apuania. After two months, I can’t take it anymore. The situation must be resolved or I will chain myself in front of the hydrofoils of Vulcano.”
A lawyer, Giulio Musto, is handling her case, who has contacted the various municipalities involved and the Massa Revenue Agency. Why it happened is not yet known. “The Revenue Agency activated a protocol about ten days ago,” explains the lawyer, “but no answers have arrived yet. They are dealing with the case and I hope it can be resolved in the short term, given the inconveniences it is causing.”
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