April 25, Meloni: “Those who use fascism to delegitimize their political opponents weaken the values” of the Resistance

Closed “the category of fascism as an instrument of delegitimization of any political opponent” weakens the values who says “he wants to defend”. In his first April 25 as premier, Giorgia Meloni entrusts a letter to Corriere della Sera “some reflections that I hope will help make this anniversary a moment of newfound national concord in which the celebration of our newfound freedom will help us understand and strengthen Italy’s role in the world as an essential bulwark of democracy”.

“And I do it – adds the Prime Minister – with the serenity of those who have seen these reflections fully mature within the ranks of their own political party now 30 years ago, without ever departing from them in the long years of political and institutional commitment”. “For many years, and as any honest observer recognizes, the parties representing the right in Parliament have declared their incompatibility with any nostalgia for fascism“. “The fundamental fruit of April 25 was, and undoubtedly remains, the affirmation of democratic values, which fascism had trampled and which we find engraved in the republican constitution“.

“From that patient negotiation aimed at defining the principles and rules of our nascent liberal democracy – an outcome not unanimously desired by all the components of the Resistance – arose a text that set itself the goal of uniting and not dividing, as Professor Galli della Loggia recalled a few days ago in these pages”, the premier told Corriere. “In managing that difficult transition, which had already undergone a significant transition with the amnesty wanted by the then Minister of Justice Togliatti , the constituents therefore entrusted to the very strength of democracy and its realization over the years the task of including in the new framework also those who had fought between the defeated and that majority of Italians who had had a ‘passive’ attitude towards fascism”. – continues Meloni – those who had been excluded from the constituent process for obvious historical reasons, undertook to ferry millions of Italians into the new parliamentary republic, giving shape to the democratic right. A family that over the years has been able to expand, involving members of political cultures, like that one Catholic or liberal, who had opposed the fascist regimeThus was born – he adds – a great democracy, solid, mature and strong, despite its many contradictions, and which in the long post-war period was able to resist internal and external threats, making Italy a protagonist in the processes of European integration, western and multilateral”.

Since 25 April, “a democracy has been born in Italy in which no one would be willing to give up the freedoms gained. In which, that is, freedom and democracy are a heritage for everyone, like it or not who would like it not to be so. And this is not only the greatest conquest that our nation can boast but it is also the only true antidote to any authoritarian risk”, writes the premier on the occasion of Liberation Day. “For this reason I do not understand the reasons why , in Italy, precisely among those who consider themselves the guardians of this conquest there are those who deny its effectiveness at the same time, narrating a sort of imaginary division between completely democratic Italians and others – presumably the majority judging by the electoral results – who while not declaring it, they would secretly dream of a return to that past of lack of freedom”, he adds.

“I understand what the goal of those who, in preparation for this day and its ceremonies, draw up the list of who can and who cannot participate, according to scores that have nothing to do with history but a lot to do with politics. Is to use the category of fascism as an instrument of delegitimization of any political opponent: sort of weapon of mass exclusionas taught by Augusto Del Noce, who for decades has allowed people, associations and parties to be excluded from every area of ​​confrontation, discussion, simple listening”, writes the premier again, quoting the philosopher who investigated fascism. “An attitude so instrumental that over the years, during the celebrations, it has even led to unacceptable episodes of intolerance such as those too often perpetrated against the Jewish Brigade by extremist groups. Unworthy episodes that we hope we never have to witness again “.

“I wonder if these people realize how much, by doing so, they undermine the values ​​they say they want to defendcontinues the prime minister. which prevented it from becoming a heritage shared by all Italians”, adds Meloni, underlining that it is “a concept taken over in 2009 by Silvio Berlusconi (then president of a Council of Ministers in which I also sat) in another famous speech, when in Onnacelebrating the anniversary of the Liberation on the rubble of the earthquake, invited to make April 25 the ‘Freedom Day’, so as to overcome the lacerations of the past. A wish – he adds – that I not only share but that I want to renew today, precisely because after 78 years the love of democracy and freedom is still the only real antidote against all totalitarianisms. In Italy as in Europe”. In fact, the prime minister cites a resolution of the European Parliament which condemns “all the regimes of the 20th century, without exception” and “which assumes an even greater value in the current context, in the face of the heroic resistance of the Ukrainian people in defense of one’s freedom and independence from the Russian invasion”.

“All over the world”, concludes the Prime Minister, “autocracies are trying to gain ground on democracies and are becoming increasingly aggressive and threatening, and the risk of a union that could lead to the subversion of the international order that liberal democracies have addressed and built after the end of the Second World War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union is unfortunately real. In this new bipolarity, Italy has made its choice of sides, and it is a clear choice. We are on the side of freedom and democracy, without ifs and buts, and this is the best way to update the message of April 25th. Why with the Russian invasion of Ukraine our freedom is back in real danger.