«I heard about the dispute between Mrs. Meloni and Roberto Saviano. I would give this lady some advice: to be less childish and to grow up.” Salman Rushdie, among the guests of the Book Fair, who tomorrow will present his latest autobiographical work together with Roberto Saviano, did not choose the path of diplomacy. Precisely in relation to the defamation trial against his colleague for having called the current Prime Minister a “bastard” in 2020 during a TV broadcast, the British-naturalized Indian writer wanted to give advice to the Prime Minister, he who of the importance of word bears marks on the body. In 1989 he ended up in the crosshairs of Islamic fanaticism after the publication of The Satanic Verses which cost him a fatwa from Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and, more recently, an attack in New York in 2022 which left him dying. «At my personal risk I have to say that politicians should get a little tougher skin because a politician nowadays, in addition to having great power, also has a lot of authority», is Rushdie’s opinion, «so it is normal that someone among the population speaks about it directly, perhaps badly, even using a bad word like the one Roberto used.” The writer then dedicated a thought to Italy: «For me, this return means a further victory, I had been here a month before the attack, we had returned to the USA shortly before. We had been to Sardinia, Umbria, Capri, a bit in Milan and Rome. The time of the pandemic had just ended and it was pleasant to be able to return to such a beautiful country. Today’s return to Italy is the closing of the circle.”
