Dear Vittorio,
with all due respect for her moment of suffering I don’t understand why Oliviero Toscani still has to reproach Giorgia Meloni for not declaring herself anti-fascist? It reminds me of the same mental disposition of the late Michela Murgia who until her last breath had the same malevolence towards the current Prime Minister. But is this mental disposition that appears almost to be on the verge of fanaticism possible? In a historical moment that I would define as being in disarray rather than the opposite, of everyone against everyone, it is increasingly realism that seems to be lacking. Realism that should remind you that if all democrats are anti-fascists, not all anti-fascists are, and have been, democrats. Malevolent and biased anti-fascism only discredits itself! But I understand that it is not understood!
Best regards
Mario Taliani
Dear Mario,
fascist is, after all, the kindest definition that Oliviero Toscani has reserved for Giorgia Meloni. The photographer, every time he appears and reappears on TV or in the newspapers, explains to us that this government is fascist, racist, sexist, homophobic, specifying that he is afraid of it because it would constitute a threat to democracy and freedoms. Trite and hackneyed words, absolutely not very imaginative, to which we are accustomed, in spite of ourselves, and which no longer produce any effect. Those who feared and predicted the establishment of a dictatorship once Meloni was appointed prime minister, at the head of a right-wing executive, have been proven wrong by the facts. And Italian citizens have not only renewed their trust in the Prime Minister and his party every time they have been called to the polls in the last two years, but have also shown growing affection for Giorgia herself, as was seen during the European elections last June, even though Toscani, interviewed by Corriere, maintained that the majority is incapable of governing. Toscani, in recent years – and then the sexists would always be those on the right! – has said of Meloni, whom he has called the “queen of cowardice”, that she is “ugly and retarded”, “a cocoon with painted lips” and so on and so forth. These do not seem to me to be appropriate terms for criticizing those who do not think like us. In short, I would have expected the photographer to delve into the merits, instead, resorting to insults, he always chatters about the same things, that Meloni plays the victim, that Meloni is racist, that she is a poor thing, that she bothers him in every way and that Meloni is unable to declare herself anti-fascist. That Giorgia is fascist Toscani deduces from a rigorous and obtuse syllogism: “She is not anti-fascist, she has never said so. Therefore, if you don’t say you are anti-fascist it means you are fascist, there is little that can be done”.
And it is all absolutely false. But how many more times will the prime minister have to proclaim herself against any totalitarianism, whether right or left, fascism or communism, so that she does not suffer these continuous incriminations? She has done it and done it again, yet self-styled red intellectuals pretend not to have noticed so they can continue to launch crazy invectives and unsustainable accusations. And has Toscani ever said he was against communism? I don’t think so. And isn’t communism a form of totalitarian and illiberal regime comparable to fascism and no less violent and repressive than the latter?
In any case, I do not intend to rail against this man, my contemporary, being only one year older than me, that is, 82 years old. Oliviero Toscani confessed to the media that he is seriously ill and that he knows that there is no escape from the disease that has attacked him, that is, that there is no effective cure, one that can save him. The photographer is dealing with the disease and with death and I know what it feels like because I have had lung surgery not once but twice in the last two years and I have had a very bad time.
I am very sorry for his health conditions and I am close to him, as I do not believe at all that it is necessary to share the same opinions to feel a sense of brotherhood, closeness, empathy, which leads us to identify with each other, regardless of political or religious beliefs.
I extend my best and most sincere wishes to Toscani.