Melons: "The anti-fascist license for publishers? It’s censorship". The reply: "Just one request…

“To participate in the small and medium publishing fair ‘More books, more free’which will take place in Rome, the publishing houses will have to obtain the ‘anti-fascist license‘, signing a specific declaration”. The Prime Minister wrote it on social media Giorgia Meloni who adds: “That’s how it is the left conceives freedom of thought: you are free, but only if you say what they allow you to say, if you think what they think, if you read what they consider appropriate. The cancellation of non-left-wing ideas, disguised as an anti-fascist struggle, is an old vice of the left, but it is a little story that no one believes anymore. It’s called, simply, censorship. And censorship is incompatible with any democratic society.”

Schlein, Meloni against anti-fascism but swore by the Constitution

“First of all I wonder if it is normal that a Prime Minister who has not found the time to express solidarity with the Electrolux workers who lose their jobs, finds the time to comment on the choices that book fairs make”. Thus the secretary of the Democratic Party Elly Schleinspeaking on ‘Repubblica delle Idee’.

“Or does it seem normal to you that in the face of a demonstration with outstretched arms – he continued, addressing the audience, referring to yesterday’s march for remigration – anti-fascism wakes up and attacks. Giorgia Meloni also swore on the Constitution and the Constitution is anti-fascist. Fascism is not an opinion, it is a crime, in a Constitution written by those who were part of the Resistance”.

Conte, “surreal Sunday controversy”

The response via social media did not take long to arrive leader M5s Giuseppe Conte: “Nothing to say or do about the investigation into corruption on the Strait Bridge, with failed projects and 13.5 billion blocked but which would be useful for infrastructure, schools, healthcare. Reforms on justice and healthcare have failed, withdrawn or rejected by citizens, while queues explode both in court and in hospital. International summits vital for our interests with Italy’s chair remaining empty because it prefers to present a stamp or they exclude it. And so Meloni goes for second-hand sure: Surreal Sunday controversy about the book fair and anti-fascism”. And then he continues: “Rightly, in addition to the obsession with me, he now has an obsession with Vannacci, which grows thanks to his failures and his betrayals. A little question: but when he deals with Italyof the high cost of living and of companies closing? Four years of zero reforms”, concludes Conte.

The Fair’s response, “no censorship”

“No censorship: the speech of the Prime Minister and the general debate that arose make it necessary to look into it further”. Thus in a note from the national small and medium publishing fair “More books, more free”. “The decision to ask participants to sign a declaration on the sharing of constitutional, democratic and mandatory principles is not censorship at all, but a need for clarity and unity among the various actors present at the fair. It is a document based on institutional and universal references without partisan views, without political references and even less party ties. It is clear that this was not how it was interpreted. We regret what is happening: the speech of the Prime Minister and the general debate that arose from it – concludes the note – obviously lead us to further careful investigation out of institutional respect”.

Giuli, “the in-depth analysis desired by the IEA is good”

“I welcome with favor and optimism the announced ‘further, careful study’ by the IEA, in light of the focused observations of the Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, on the anachronistic request to make a profession of anti-fascist faith to access ‘More books, more free'”, the Minister of Culture said in a note, Alessandro Giuli.

“Our civil rights, our freedom of expression and our popular sovereignty entrusted to the centrality of Parliament – observed Giuli – are already more than well defended by the Constitutional Charter of 1948, which arose from the rubble of the war caused by dead, buried and historicized liberticidal regimes. Where this does not seem sufficient, the judiciary and the police are the further, natural guardians of our democratic security”.

“I trust – added the minister – that the reasonable words of the IEA represent the beginning of the end of a glaring misunderstanding susceptible to brutal exploitation. The great Giorgio Albertazzi, as well as the communist Palmiro Togliatti author of the Appeal to the Brothers in Black Shirts or the Keeper of the Seals Togliatti, supporter of the great post-war amnesty, today would smile benevolently at the idea of ​​knowing that we are more mature than any senseless nostalgia”.