Scurati to Meloni: «Violence against me. The compensation problem? False, my thoughts should have been silenced”

What happened “is violence.” The writer doesn’t mince words Antonio Scuration the website Republicin addressing the Prime Minister directly Giorgia Meloni regarding the cancellation of his monologue on April 25th. An intervention that was supposed to be broadcast on Rai during the programme What will be hosted by Serena Bortone.

On her Facebook profile, the prime minister posted the text that the novelist was supposed to pronounce, but also reported, while specifying that she did not know “what the truth is”, the version of events provided by the public broadcasting company, according to which the cancellation of Scurati’s participation in the program would be due to reasons relating to the requested compensation of 1,800 euros.

The person concerned clearly denies this reconstruction, speaking of “defamatory attack”. What Meloni reports, says Scurati, “is false both as regards the compensation and as regards the extent of the commitment”.

«I have only accepted – specifies the author – the invitation of a public television program to write a monologue at a price mutually agreed with the same company by the agency that represents me and perfectly in line with that of the writers who have asked me preceded.”

In fact, according to what the CourierScurati would have negotiated a contract with Rai via Elastic, a literary and communications agency based in Bologna. And everything would go smoothly until the last moment, so much so that the novelist would also have received train tickets and hotel reservationsin addition to the usual forms, to travel to Rome and hold the monologue.

Scurati, born in Naples in 1969, therefore states that the decision to cancel his participation is evidently due to “editorial reasons”, as appears from an internal Rai document. In short, we are faced with a case of political censorship. «My thoughts on fascism and post-fascism – claims the writer –, well rooted in facts, had to be silenced». And raising the issue of compensation, he adds, is simply a way of hiding the substance of the issue. It is completely abnormal, in his opinion, for a head of government, “using all his overwhelming power”, to attack “a private citizen” in this way on a personal level.

At the origin of everything is the thesis, expressed by Scurati in his books, that Benito Mussolini was the initiator of a populist political style that has recently come back into vogue. And that the current right has no intention of emancipating itself from that heavy legacy.

April 21, 2024 (modified April 21, 2024 | 09:24)

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