I would have done like him – Corriere.it

Record numbers for the 2023 Book Fair, which ended yesterday: 215,000 visitors against 168,000 in 2022, which had already been a record year. But if on the one hand we celebrate, on the other, the controversies continue around the disputes against Eugenia Roccella who prevented the family minister from presenting her book at the review on Saturday.

Controversies that have also touched the outgoing director Nicola Lagioia, intervened to try to encourage dialogue between the activists and the minister, but without success, to whom Roccella accuses of “not having taken a clear position to defend the right to speak”. Yesterday, still hot, it is precisely some statements by Lagioia that open the morningduring an interview with Agora on Rai 3. Back to the disputes. «It is clear that I would have liked the minister to be able to speak – reiterates Lagioia – but I’m not the Salone’s security service or the police. I suggested to the boys, who also objected to me, to elect a delegate and have a dialogue. They said no and it was a shame, but it’s legit. My method is dialogue, not the truncheon”. Then, the chapter Augusta Montaruli, the FdI deputy who in those excited moments shouted at Lagioia: «Shame! With all the money you get…” «It is not a good example for young people – notes the director – that on the stage with a minister there is a felon, definitively convicted of embezzlement. Furthermore, even if an intellectual is paid with public money, he does not mean that he is no longer independent ».

In Lagioia it is also remembered that the activists shouted: «Via the fascists from the Salone» and that Roccella spoke of “fascism of anti-fascists”. “I wouldn’t bring up fascism so easily,” observes the writer. So, when asked if the current government is fascist, he replies: «It can have an authoritarian turn, which does not mean fascism but something else: restriction of freedom, of rights. And in the evening, as a guest of Lilli Gruber on La 7, he adds: «There are things that make you think. It is a government whose ministers speak nonchalantly of ethnic replacement while today (yesterday, ed) Mattarella said that it must be the person, not the ethnic group, that is protected. A government that sometimes considers those who think differently an enemy to be isolated, verbally attacked or mocked. A government that could question acquired rights such as abortion”.

Also Roccella speaks on TVto Fourth Republic on Network 4: “I expected unanimous support. Instead I see that the situation is very different. I thank those who have also given me solidarity on the left, Renzi, Violante, the mayor of Turin Lo Russo ». And referring in particular to Roberto Saviano and Elly Schlein, she replies: «I am amazed by the attempt to overturn the facts and to say that we have provoked. We have largely tolerated dissent, indeed we have tried to dialogue. But you can’t take away the word.” Towards the demonstrators he adds: “I was not afraid but I think there was a rather worrying aggression and violence”. He charges rejected by Non una di meno, which speaks of Roccella’s “media manipulation”.

At the closing conference of the Salone, at the Lingotto in Turin, Lagioia says he wants to leave the controversy behind. And on the future of the review he notes: “I don’t think there is anything to fear, but independence must be guarded”. He also speaks Annalena Benini, the new director. “I too hope things like the ones that happened don’t happen again,” he says about the Roccella case. And he adds: «Lagioia has my total support, I would have done the same thing». Then, on the Salone: ​​«It doesn’t seem to me that there is a lack of pluralism. cThere’s room for everyone and there always will be». And again: «I have not been subjected to attempts at political interference and I am sure it will not happen. I don’t fear for the independence of the event, the guarantee is the work team, everyone’s support and, I believe, my thoughts too». Shortly before, she had assured from the stage: «I bring my personality, my freedom, I will put all the energy into it. I’m not afraid: the team is around me and I can count on readers and a love of books».

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