If Fini “clears” the young environmentalists on the right – Corriere.it

“And then there are these guys, right? That they will have ways of protesting that sometimes seem confused, which in some respects may appear reprehensible but which in any case politics has a duty to listen to, especially for the issues they bring to our attention”.
Gianfranco Fini never makes an explicit reference to the «Last generation» movement, but his thought is clear and the reference is defined. If only because, when the former Speaker of the Chamber pronounces these words – decidedly in contrast with the feeling of that center-right government of which he was one of the founders and decidedly in disagreement with the ruling class of the former AN of which he was the tutelary deity – the political agenda is still tuned to the latest striking action of young activists who want to impose the issue of climate change in the public debate, namely the pouring of the black liquid based on vegetable carbon that ended the total version black of the Trevi Fountain in world newspapers.

We are halfway through last week. The former Speaker of the Chamber participates in the presentation of The bedlam of the damned, the latest thriller with a legal background of the magistrate Marcello Vitale in a hotel in the center of Rome. At a certain point, Fini’s speech comes to politics. Indeed, to be more precise, how political commitment is declined in the third millennium. “The thing that must scare us most, with regard to young people, is apathy,” says Fini. “So, if young people protest to try to impose issues on politics, even if this protest sometimes takes on connotations that appear confused and perhaps even reprehensible, politics has a duty to listen to them. Because something confused and reprehensible is always better than apathy». Of course, adds the former AN leader, «every protest must remain within the law. But can we argue that these young people do more serious things than we saw in the last century?».

It will not remain in history like the equivalence between the twenty years and the “absolute evil” of twenty years ago and perhaps not even in the news of 2023 like the invitation, sent on April 25 last year and addressed to Giorgia Meloni, to take the opportunity to settle the accounts with fascism. But Finian’s point of view, this time on the protests of young people, could open another debate on the right. With drop points that are anything but obvious.

The Political Diary newsletter

If you want to stay updated on political news, subscribe to the newsletter “Political Diary”. It is dedicated to Corriere della Sera subscribers and arrives twice a week at 12. Just click here.