Letters
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR •
The field of lethargy in the face of the horror of contemporary fascism
Who has written to the editor-in-chief, Claudio Cerasa
17 SEP 26
Translated by AI
To the Editor – Corepla, the most well-known of the consortia responsible for the management and recycling of separately collected waste – which handles plastics from the separate collection of municipal waste – has been placed under judicial administration by the Milan Public Prosecutor’s Office. The charge: failing to monitor the mismanagement and resulting unauthorised profits of one of the companies responsible for recycling this waste, which instead mixed waste from different sources in order to maximise the subsidies paid out by Corepla itself for recycling activities. This represents a major blow—whatever the outcome of the legal proceedings—to a sector already in dire straits. It is the paradoxical consequence of a success whose implications were not properly assessed. A great deal of plastic is collected in Italy, but the market for recycled products is struggling. Italian recyclers no longer accept plastic from municipal collections, and what local authorities collect is stored, posing risks of criminal liability and fire. When recycling targets are set – 65 per cent for the EU – without asking whether the resulting products actually have a market or not, or how the global market operates; and when the entire sector needs to be propped up by subsidies, plastic manufacturers effectively pay a tax that supports the whole industry, with the inevitable distortions that follow. And with the temptations that always arise in an economy driven by subsidies and public funding.
Chicco Testa
* * *
To the Editor – Primaries are, or should be, a serious matter. For this reason, I hope that those within the broad coalition do not degenerate into a contest devoid of substance, but are instead the exact opposite. It would be interesting, for example, if the issue of support for Ukraine were finally to be resolved through a clear democratic process. Instead of the usual vague platitudes, I envisage a clear-cut clash between Elly Schlein, who defends support for Kyiv, and Giuseppe Conte, who is working to deny it and is effectively pushing for surrender to Putin. It would be an opportunity to discuss, once and for all and in earnest, a crucial issue. I confess that the mere thought of having to vote on a people’s right to defend themselves against an aggressor makes my hands tremble. But that is precisely why such a decision must be made democratically, in full view of all Italians. They have the right to know who will govern them.
Davide Romano
It is likely that in the centre-left’s manifesto, if one is ever published, Italy’s finest wordsmiths will find the perfect formula for saying everything without actually saying anything. One might read something like this: “Support for Ukraine, its sovereignty and its right to security, but no to the idea that Europe should entrust its future to an arms race or to military logic alone. The objective must remain a just and lasting peace, built on deterrence, diplomacy and European political initiative.” Such a convoluted explanation of why democracy must be defended when it is under attack would, however, serve as further proof of the existence, within the progressive camp, of a broad coalition that has fallen into a state of lethargy in the face of the horror of contemporary fascism.