Grimaldi (AVS): “The real violence is in Gaza. And Parenzo, David, is on Goliath’s side”

Rome. “Do you know what I would have said to David Parenzo?” What, Ms Grimaldi? “That the broken windows and the injured police officers are nothing.” What do you mean? “Nothing compared to Gaza. Nothing compared to apartheid in Palestine. That’s what I would have told him. That’s what Ilaria Salis should have said.” The MEP was not, however, evasive: she spoke of “economic violence”. “But she should have told him that his name is David. And that today he’s on Goliath’s side.” The words we are quoting are those of Marco Grimaldi, an Avs MP dear to Askatasuna. Grimaldi is deeply disappointed that we are not questioning him about the cost of living or the season tickets reintroduced by Trenitalia, and that we are instead focusing on trivialities. “I don’t know exactly what you’re asking me. And I don’t understand why you keep talking about Salis, who did not express solidarity with the police,” he says. “He didn’t express it? Oh well.” We explain to him that, almost more than his words, it was Salis’s livid gaze that struck us. “I didn’t see it.” Eyes like the Gorgon’s. “Who cares?” We admire his frankness. “Everyone has expressed solidarity. Even our party has done so. But this violence is only to be expected with a government that used to say: ‘In the south they’re all Camorra members, in the north they’re all Maranza’.” Did it really say that? “These days we see more security decrees than smashed shop windows.” We also appreciate his flair for hyperbole. “The government has never wanted to tackle the real causes of the anger.” What are they? “Protest is simmering in Italy. I’ll be at the juvenile detention centre in Turin tomorrow.” Will you be popping into Askatasuna as well? “I’ll be at the juvenile detention centre because I think that children who aren’t listened to end up causing trouble. Teenagers who aren’t listened to cause trouble.” Are we talking about break-ins or what? “Yes. If you don’t listen to them, they smash windows, overturn shelves, steal from shops. We need to sit down and understand them.” If you sat them down, what might they say? “That all this is happening because there are those who have created volatile suburbs. That the blame also lies with those who didn’t grant them ius soli or ius scholae. The clash was inevitable. We condemn the violence, sure, but we were expecting it.” Waiting for the barbarians: Salis or Kavafis. “Are you on about Salis again?! Don’t you realise he’s a marginal phenomenon?” Perhaps. But Salis is always on television. “There’s a massive phenomenon we’re pretending not to see, which is everyone’s problem. The protest transcends all political divides; it’s complex, and these people think they can tackle it by putting the military on the streets. There are reasons for this anger.” And is “economic violence,” as Salis puts it, worse than physical violence? “Salis again! Salis isn’t a scandal! I’ll give you a scandal!” Please elaborate. “The scandal is that there are so many people, like you, who are more outraged by a broken window than by the genocide in Gaza.” All right. But can Gaza always be the yardstick for everything? “Yes. All violence disgusts me. But the abuse of the weak by the powerful disgusts me even more. It’s like David and Goliath. And we know which side Parenzo is on.”