Letters
The letters •
Stand by your convictions, even when that means going against your followers’ wishes
Who wrote to the editor, Claudio Cerasa
29 JUL 26
Translated by AI
To the editor – What about Mancini? Not even a North Korean honour? A Houthi festival?
Giuseppe De Filippi
To the Editor – Dissent, conflict, violence. The first two are the lifeblood of democracy. The third is its sword of Damocles. The leaders of the broad coalition (or whatever it may come to be called) have not failed to issue a more or less timid condemnation of those who theorise and practise it. But we are still falling short of the bare minimum. What is still lacking, in fact, is the realisation that the galaxy of antagonistic movements represents a highly insidious enemy not only for democratic institutions, but for the very ambitions of progressive forces to govern. In Val di Susa, a protean ‘black bloc’ has been active for years, encountering a local population that is either passive or complicit. And the mutual affection between the social centres – led by Askatasuna – and certain representatives of the Five Star Movement and AVS is well known. In the 1970s, there were those who… ‘neither with the state nor with the Red Brigades’. Today there are those who… “neither with Meloni nor with the No Tav”. Do these people not realise they risk making a second historic blunder? In any case, this is another point that deserves clarification in the centre-left’s now eagerly awaited programme.
Michele Magno
The point, however, is almost never whether or not to condemn. The point is something else. It is how long you choose to delay your condemnation. It is how much you choose to come to terms with the ambiguities you have fostered in the past. How much you choose to come to terms with the presence of violent elements that do not arise out of nowhere but spring from a breeding ground that you have helped to cultivate and nurture. So today, the real issue is not asking yourself whether to side with Meloni or the No Tav. Today, the real issue is asking yourself whether or not you have the courage to defend the state, even when this means challenging your own followers. Simple, isn’t it?
To the Editor – Camillo Langone’s article on the images to be featured on future euro banknotes raises an issue that clearly goes far beyond numismatics. So the question I ask myself – and one we should all be asking – is this: what should we Europeans, and our children born and raised in Europe – for whom we are building a common home founded partly on the pillars of Enlightenment culture and partly on Christian culture, in a unique and unrepeatable blend in the history of the world – be ashamed of? Why is there so much fear that it verges on terror? It seems that our continent has developed a guilt complex. We call ourselves Europeans, yet we utter the word ‘the West’ with embarrassment. And even more so, we avoid recalling that our civilisation is the offspring of Athens, Rome and Jerusalem, in order to embrace cultures that are entirely alien to us, often in open conflict with our democratic values. At the root of anti-Western sentiment lies, as is now evident, an attempt to reject the role of Christianity in European history, as if this were an offence directed at those who profess another faith. We are deliberately living a paradox; we ask other cultures – often with fascination – to be proud of their own identity, whilst at the same time regarding our own as a historical blunder to be concealed and a source of shame. We confuse respect for others with self-censorship, and hospitality with our deliberate and sought-after cultural erasure. Those who do not know their own history cannot engage in dialogue or exchange with that of others; they can only endure it. Those who erase their own memory in order to appear more inclusive simply end up becoming irrelevant. Banknotes, then, are not merely instruments of payment and exchange: they are also the calling card of a civilisation that can proudly recount its history. If we are afraid to represent who we have been or who we are even on a piece of paper, perhaps the problem is not the image to be printed, but rather that we no longer have the courage to recognise ourselves as a community that shares values and principles of progress. Europe must decide whether it wishes to continue defending its own civilisation or to keep apologising for having inherited it.
Antonello Sassu
To the Editor – I understand the daily criticism of my work. It is an editorial choice. However, I have never uttered, either in public or in private, the statement attributed to me today and addressed to Giorgia Meloni: “I cannot guarantee you their vote on the preference list” (the reference is to the “Azzurri” MPs) in Carmelo Caruso’s article. Best regards.
Antonio Tajani
Carmelo Caruso replies. We can guarantee that the source was reliable and that Tajani deserves 14.9 billion votes for his likeability, courtesy and patience. Just like Safe. Vote for Antonio!