Evicted From Eternity_ The Restructuring of Modern Rome - Michael Herzfeld [188]
On 23 February the newspapers announced a generic extension of the deadlines on evictions. But this brought the leaders of the Via degli Ibernesi group no relief, since it applied only to those who had very specific needs such as having five or more children or being over 65 years old). Loredana had just recently been evicted from the shoe shop she had previously managed in a building owned by the Ukrainian church; unfortunately the apartment was in Paolo's name, for otherwise she could have claimed that she was now out of work and thus was covered by one of the categories entitling tenants to the new extension of deadline. Paolo nevertheless thought, especially after consulting with the leftist city councilor, Nicola Galloro, that there might be some "ways of smoothing things over" ~smussature) in the law, now that it was officially promulgated; it also appeared that after sixty days from the official promulgation of the new law the central government would cede control of its implementation and interpretation to the local authorities, which again would give the tenants a chance. Meanwhile, with a national referendum coming up on the last day of May, the tenants expected to get another extension to avoid clashing with the electoral process yet again. But Paolo and Loredana had a particular problem: as the only family not entitled to an extension under the new law, they feared that the bank would seize this opportunity to put a definitive end to their rebellious presence.
Meanwhile, exhaustion was beginning to take its toll. Nerves frayed; quarrels flared, briefly, like irritable flames, although they were quickly extinguished again; residents stopped greeting each other, then began again although with a sometimes icy correctness. The tactic of making different arrangements and different deadlines was beginning to divide some of the residents away from those determined to resist. And even they showed occasional moments of willingness to compromise. Loredana, exhausted and dispirited, said that a decent offer of alternative housing might just be acceptable to her personally, although she did not know if her husband would ever accept the idea. At one point, perhaps to bring other residents back into line, she threatened to treat independently with the bank even though she was not certain that she could ever bring herself to do such a thing either. But she was increasingly tired of the petty bickering that broke out among the tenants in the later stages of the struggle and annoyed by the refusal of some to share the expense and effort involved.
The other tenants also had a temporary advantage thanks to the bank's anxiety to get these two troublemakers out of the building as fast as possible; with every likelihood of being able to stay in the building at least until the following September, they were relatively free of immediate anxiety for the moment. With the new extension to late June came the news that various politicians were talking-De Luca had apparently met with the city's current housing chief, while Gianfranco Fini, the leader of the Alleanza nazionale, unexpectedly stayed for half an hour on what was supposed to have been a ten-minute visit to the site and promised that he would try to speak with the head of the bank (although it is not clear whether he ever did).
There were still residual ambiguities about the exact extent of the law's ability to intervene. Loredana thought that the police would never use force because of the public relations disaster it would mean; but she also acknowledged that, after three attempts by the bailiff to serve the eviction notices, the prefect was required