Fifty years ago, in the Italy of neo-fascist massacres but also of the green light for divorce, to celebrate the figure of Giacomo Matteotti and to remember his assassination at the hands of the fascists - it happened on 10 June 1924 - only one book was published: it was a biography and it was written by the historian Antonio Casanova. In addition to the book, a film directed by Florestano Vancini was also produced: The crime Matteotti. The actor is the protagonist Franco Nero. This year, on the occasion of its centenary, Italy is a profoundly different country and, perhaps surprisingly, there are already 28 books available. One more than the others, according to Aldo Cazzullo e Liliana Segre, deserves careful reading. Is titled I accuse you – Giacomo Matteotti and us (Utet) and the author is Concetto Vecchio, journalist from Republic. Someone who still goes around with a notebook in his pocket to document himself.
Vecchio, this year June 10th falls the day after the European Championships. Let's try to bring Matteotti into current events: what does his story represent in today's Italy?
“The first value is given by the fact that Matteotti was a staunch defender of democracy, Parliament, the rule of law and public schools in a passionate way: today these values are super current and decidedly necessary. The second value is that in him there is a lesson in political morality because facing a dictatorship openly like this is not for everyone: this is a high, great example of uncommon ideality. The third value, in my opinion, lies in having been a very concrete man of the left and particularly attentive to the issue of inequalities. In fact he truly changed the destiny of the women and men of Polesine who he truly instructed and educated: he gave them responsibilities, he organized the leagues and they praised him and voted for him even when he was no longer there. Matteotti was a true man of the left, attentive to the reasons of the least favored in a very effective way."
Does it therefore represent a warning for the left?
“The problem of the left today is its relationship with the popular strata, with inequalities: the relationship with the historical classes of the left is essentially lost. We have 40% of Italians who no longer go to vote and many of these are fragile, precarious or now completely indifferent voters. Matteotti's is a timely lesson. And yes, there is a very strong warning for the left."
And what about the right?
“The right cannot come to terms with its past. It strikes me that the sentence pronounced by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni but, in fact, brought out with pincers - Matteotti was "killed by fascist squadrismo" - was front page news: she stated the obvious. This explains, more than many other things, what kind of relationship the right still has with fascism today. He knows that fascism is a national disease, it is our product that challenges us, so the right stays away. If Meloni had the courage, as Fini had, to make that crossing, then he would come out in a different light but he does not have the imprinting to bring about a cultural change".
Why, despite the sacrifice of his life that made him a great martyr, compared to anti-fascism, Matteotti was considered the son of a lesser God throughout the twentieth century?
“First of all because he was a reformist socialist and this had its importance because reformism on the left, in the second part of the twentieth century, was completely in the minority as a culture. Matteotti also suffered from the communist cultural hegemony that was predominant and he had been an anti-communist. He paid this price: he was not a child of that culture. And the communists didn't love him. Then he was also the result of a split: the socialists in fact split at a certain point and Matteotti was among the founders of the PSU, a small party. In the post-war period, therefore, he was the son of the Social Democrats. So paradoxically he found himself - in toponymy - on many roads but not in popular favor, even on the left. Yet he was a man of extraordinary stature, one of our civil heroes, who did not have what Gramsci, Pasolini, Moro had."
Speaking of toponymy, how did the story of via Pisanelli end? The inhabitants of the building in Rome where the socialist deputy lived said no to the "fascist hand" on the tribute plaque.
“A compromise was found: the Municipality had proposed “killed by fascism”, but the condominium owners said no. In the end it will be written "vile assassination" because none of the plaques or monuments in Rome that commemorate Matteotti contain the word fascism. Therefore the condominium owners of via Pisanelli do not want to be labeled in this way for fear of vandalism.
Is this Italy today?
“There is a culture of Italians who are not fascists but who also do not want to be labeled as anti-fascists: this in my opinion is one of the reasons why Meloni does not side with anti-fascism. It is a very large but also very silent and influential deposit of moods and characters. And this story of the condominium in Via Pisanelli, which is small but at the same time instructive, proves it."
Aldo Cazzullo, journalist and writer, claims that yours is "the best of the books coming out on Giacomo Matteotti": how is it different from the other 27?
“This is a journalist's book and therefore I wasn't just in the library or on the stalls buying old books, I didn't just accumulate papers. At a certain point I set off, I embarked on a journey because I wanted to understand what relationship there was today between the country and Matteotti. And it happens that when you set off on a journey, with a pen in your hand and a notebook in your pocket, if you really have a bit of a desire to wander around, to look inside things at every stage you take, well, it happens that you find a story . And I found my story: from via Pisanelli to Matteotti's family. By lining up the pieces I discovered the meaning of this book which is above all that of a very strong removal of a public trauma but also of a private trauma. It is an investigation into forgetfulness. Books must make sense, I wanted to tell "my" Matteotti and this was the initial difficulty of my book. But then it was journalism that guided me and gave me the key."
In terms of moral tension, courage and political determination, is there anyone in today's Italy who resembles Matteotti?
“In Italy there are many Italians who do their duty every day, with great courage, self-sacrifice and civic sense”.
Not even a name?
“I consider Matteotti a great anti-Italian. Like Falcone, Borsellino, Ambrosoli, Pasolini, Sciascia who were outside of any conformism".
But all strangers to politics as a profession.
"Real. But it is also true that Matteotti should be taken as an example, he should be practiced, not recited. And this is above all a task that falls to the left, which has many more things to learn from Matteotti than the right. The right will never love him, but the left, which often quotes him, should instead put his lesson into practice. This man represents a beautiful example and the left must recover the last ones, the suburbs, those who don't go to vote, the precarious workers, the young people. And Matteotti himself can explain to the left how it's done."
With an example that however focuses on concreteness, not on chatter.
“This in my opinion makes him an atypical Italian because I think that Matteotti was at the same time an anti-Italian but I also think that, as an anti-Italian, he was very Italian.
It seems like a contradiction. It is?
“In his last speech, that of May 30, when Matteotti explained to the fascists all the violence perpetrated to win the 1924 elections, he could have made a rhetorical speech as it would have been in the spirit of the time. But no. He is surgical. That speech is exemplary, it seems written by a journalist because, for each city, he explains how the scams and violence occurred, he explains why that vote is a vote corrupted by fascism. This is a very long and passionate speech. And it is a very un-Italian speech because we are not like that by culture, we are characterized by great speeches but without questions, speeches that, in the end, do not ask questions. Instead, many questions, many questions, many facts arose from that speech: because there is a religion of facts in Matteotti. The fascists, exasperated, tell him "shut up, you're not Italian" because by defaming fascism Matteotti was defaming the nation, therefore the homeland. The fascists had understood his otherness and were frightened by it."
And Mussolini?
“Mussolini was too because he found himself faced with an irreducible man who could not be restrained. Our character as Italians lies in contradiction. But the history of Italy is full of anti-Italians - a definition that has nothing to do with the fascists' accusations against Matteotti - who did their duty to the end and who paid a high price."
