What the statements of La Russa and the book by Velardi and Testa teach

The memories that Claudio Velardi shares with the Corriere della sera of his years spent at the Fgci with Massimo D’Alema, explaining that he became a communist to get more with the girls, go hand in hand with the statements of Ignazio La Russa regarding his relationships with Almirante and the role the Missino secretary played in republican democracy. A cross-cutting “how we were” in which people speak who step away from an identity position because, with maturity, they have assumed a different balance.

Velardi expresses it in a book published by Liberilibri, entitled “Siamo stati iscritti al Pci”, of which he is co-author with Chicco Testa, whose dissociation from youthful positions is even more evident, having over time matured a recognition as a supporter of innovation and nuclear power, as a critic of fashionable and mannerist environmentalism. All things that the left does not like very much, of course. (The book will be presented tomorrow, Tuesday, May 26, at 5:30 p.m., at Confedilizia, in via Borgognona 47 in Rome. With the authors, speakers include: Guido Crosetto, Roberto Gualtieri, Paolo Mieli, Claudio Petruccioli. Moderator: Myrta Merlino).

But we were saying about La Russa, who on his part expresses reasonable and truthful opinions when he says that Almirante’s role in democracy was absolutely positive. The Missino secretary, in fact, helped contain a tragically dangerous neo-fascist and terrorist drift. And he also supported some important institutional operations, such as the election of the President of the Republic. Furthermore, he adopted a civil and even cordial attitude with many opponents in personal relationships: the mutual sympathy with the ecumenically mourned Marco Pannella was evident when the two met in public. The issue of Almirante’s tribute to Berlinguer’s funeral chamber first, a commendable act of courtesy that Giancarlo Pajetta and Nilde Iotti later had the opportunity to reciprocate four years later, and his funeral broadcast live on Rai is always recalled as proof of that underlying respect that today is invoked by political contenders who would instead be much more quarrelsome.

Let’s leave aside this last aspect, very debatable and conditioned by the praise of past times, by a widespread nostalgia that will certainly benefit the sales of Velardi and Testa’s book. Let’s also leave aside, regarding the second highest office of the State, that it would be desirable for him to speak less and avoid making public his sympathies, antipathies, and opinions on any topic. Maintaining an institutionally correct silence, like that of the president of whom he remains the deputy (even if Mr. Mattarella, to put it like Sinner, has been chatting more lately).