The flame and Almirante: among the young but nostalgic little brothers of Italy

Why are you right? “For love of country,” he replies Matteo, 21 years. “For the love of our ideas,” raises a boy behind him. «Do you know that every banquet of ours at the Sapienza is contested? On the left they are afraid of our narrative ». “We got two thousand votes, out of thirty thousand voters, we are the fourth force in the university, yet every time we need police cover,” he says Niccolo, 22 years old, student of Literature. Isn’t the violence mutual? Aren’t your people who enter high schools and beat up collective students? “If they do, they’re wrong. We’ve always said that the strength of conviction is more than enough», the guy intrudes again. “They occupy the classrooms. We do not. We just study», Matteo points out. «I come from Calabria, I study law». He wants to be a magistrate, his friends say.

Giorgia Meloni’s Under 21 team

Eur pond, Rome. National Youth Party, the Under 21’s Giorgia Meloni. This dialogue takes place at the book stall, which the boys in purple T-shirts preside over as volunteers. «Even on the right they read», Matthew provokes laughing. What? The biographies of Romualds And Almirante; The boys of via Milano, those of the Century, of Mauro Mazza, just resurrected as commissioner at the Buchmesse; the revolt of Reggio Calabria. Out of there we meet Andrea Culaon22 years old, student in political science in Rome 3. He bought Italy during the great war, of the Japanese Harukichi Shimoi. «They just presented it, you intrigued me. Shimoi marched on Rome, dedicated the book to Mussolini. I have the modern history exam, it could be a useful reading».

Rino Gaetano, Guccini and Dalla

They ring out from the loudspeakers Rino Gaetano, Guccini, Lucio Dalla. Southern inflections. The future city councilors, regional councilors or ministers of the Brothers of Italy. They received with an ovation Ignatius LaRussa: «The flame in the heart, this is the important thing», the old patriarch encouraged them. Deputy Foreign Minister Edmund Cirielli he spoke of the “civilizing culture of the Italians, which he built and implemented both before fascism and during it in Africa”. And we are always in the fairy tale of Italian good people. And Fenix ​​is ​​the name of the kermesse. This right now in power from what ashes is it reborn? Is anti-fascism, say, a value? And here we enter treacherous terrain. The President of National Youth, Fabio Roscani33, a Roman deputy for San Paolo, immediately puts himself on the defensive: «The anti-fascists I know prevented me from speaking to Big head to Wisdom”. «They threw a bucket of glue on my hair at me», her deputy adds to the dose, Clare La Porta, 32 years old, from Prato. “I’m not a historian, but I don’t see fascism around, anti-fascists do”. Then Roscani says: «The values ​​of the Constitution are ours». And La Porta shows that he has studied: «Fascism was a dictatorship to be condemned. But I’m from ’91, my commitment was the anti-mafia».

Roscani tells how he became right-wing. «My parents voted for DC first, then Berlusconi, in my high school, Kepler, the collectives seemed to me to be piloted, even by the unions, those on the right were freer: I chose freedom. I then presented myself to the Garbatella section, that of Giorgia Meloni ». “I don’t know who my parents voted for, in my high school the vice principal smoked joints with the students in the courtyard and taught lessons in Che’s T-shirts, one day he kicked the kids out of Azione Giovani from an assembly: it seemed to me a great injustice . So I knocked on the section of those boys: I was 14 years old». Military right for reaction, is the refrain of all time. This was already the great storytelling of Gianfranco Finiwho said he became one because the redheads prevented him from seeing a film by John Wayne. But is it a really convincing explanation? La Porta is also already a deputy. «The impact with Parliament, for me who comes from militancy, was bad. Slow times. Bureaucracy. It’s not a dynamic environment.”

The “Silent Majority”

National Youth has 50,000 members. “And since we’ve been in government there has been a boom,” admits Roscani. Everyone wants to get on Giorgia’s bandwagon. They have been guests Pietrangelo Buttafuoco, Angelo Mellone, Laura Teccethe host of Underdog; Cucinelli, Tremonti, Roccella, Tajani, Labor he interviewed Del Mastro, Poreč Donzelli. They are expected today Sangiuliano, Lollobrigida, Crosetti, Capezzoni. Meloni will not close. “Too many commitments”. Tick Fabio Rampelli. “Eh, I’m the dean. I contributed to founding everything here». Clare Colosimo, Cyrus Male And Wanda Ferro they discuss anti-mafia. The boys honor the memory of with a long round of applause Andrea Augello. The militants find a copy of The Patriot’s Voice on their chairs. Lighters with the inscription “Italians first”. Mugs with the insignia “Everything for the Fatherland”. “If I see a tricolor I get excited,” says Roscani. “I’m in opposition to the cosmopolitan model boy,” admits Culaon, the one in Shimoi’s book: “I’m for the country like a family, young people don’t have to leave, you have to stay to improve Italy.”

What is the moral of the afternoon? We meet the boys of the library. “Many fear exposing themselves to us, but the truth is that the silent majority already supports us,” Niccolò swears. “We’ll call it the future” is the slogan of the party. On the Eur it pours.