Storm over the denial teacher. Valditara: “He can’t teach”

MILAN. The case of Pietro Marinelli, the Milanese professor who on the eve of Memorial Day interrupted a theater show on Nazism accusing the actors of “inflating the numbers” of the Shoah, ended up on the desk of his superiors. While the Minister of Education Giuseppe Valditara, urged throughout the day by the opposition, clarified his position last night: «He cannot teach. Holocaust denial is incompatible with any public role, even worse in places dedicated to the education of young people”.

The process of “school justice” has already started. The director of the «Curie-Sraffa» institute, who together with the other teachers had immediately distanced herself from the teacher, wrote a report for the regional school director Yuri Coppi. It will be up to him, after having heard the person concerned, to evaluate the suspension or a heavier measure. Marinelli, in fact, has already made headlines. In 2017, when he was teaching at the «Falcone-Righi» in Corsico, he was left at home for a week without pay after uttering anti-Islamic remarks in front of a Muslim student. Just as his ideas on other topics are no mystery: his Facebook and blog are full of pro-Putin phrases and posts against vaccines and against gay adoptions. But there are also photos that portray him at FdI events (a couple next to Giorgia Meloni and Ignazio La Russa) even if before the vote he declared that he supported “sovereign and popular Italy”.

Marinelli’s colleagues, gathered yesterday in the teaching staff, have little desire to talk. They limit themselves to reiterating their condemnation of the denialist sentences. Beatrice Marzorati and Davide Scaccianoce, on the other hand, the actors who were on stage when the professor started screaming, offer a further reflection. «He disturbed us for what he said but also because he left the hall in the dark refusing the scheduled confrontation after the show, with the lights on – they say -. We hope that whoever has to take action will do so, but at the same time we believe the social pillory that is falling upon him is wrong. His positions are unjustifiable, but being violent towards him does not bring anything positive ».—