Feminist, anti-fascist and allergic to compromises: who is Serena Bortone, host of Chesarà

After the controversy over the cancellation of the monologue of Antonio Scurati inside the transmission What will be Of Serena Bortone, broadcast on Rai3, the journalist read that text live, sending a very clear message to the top management, who without warning her had decided to cancel the writer’s speech, with a strong and anti-fascist text, on the eve of the celebrations for April 25th.

Free and anti-fascist

Bortone’s position on the subject, moreover, has always been more than clear. Born in 1970, the journalist has always declared herself to be left-wing and anti-fascist, reiterating this on TV and then in an interview with Corriere della Sera: «I only said that I am free precisely because I am anti-fascist: if I were fascist I couldn’t be free. It is a logical reasoning and a tautological truth». It is also for this reason that the speech by the Premio Strega writer could not be eliminated from the schedule of her program and, although not as she would have liked, she aired it anyway.

The mess tin

Bortone quickly understood the dynamics of things. At 18 he was already working alongside Mino Damato In search of the Ark, then in the early nineties the season of investigations in the program arrived Lubrano sends me, and finally the experience as a political journalist, his great passion, a Cameras And Agora. From 2020 to 2023 he leads Today is another day, popular talk in the early afternoon on Rai 1, subsequently replaced by The right time by Caterina Balivo, not without controversy. «The people, Italy, the Italians are much further ahead than they sometimes want to be represented… Be free and authentic, at any price.” his words in the last episode.

The driving force of my life has always been work

«There is a big difference between a journalist somehow politically linked to this or that area and a presenter like me. I am not the result of a political choice, I come from almost twenty years of afternoon TV”, Balivo’s remark during an interview with The messenger on the eve of her return to TV. Then Serena Bortone returned to Rai 3 prime time, a new challenge that didn’t scare her at all. «The driving force of my life has always been work», his words to Corriere della Sera some time ago.

Private life

Compromises are not part of his life, not even in private: «I am a very free person and freedom entails the impossibility of making compromises. In the sentimental sphere in particular I have never been able to do it. I don’t know if it’s good or bad, but that’s how I am.” Serena Bortone has never married and has no children, but love certainly cannot be reduced to a white dress. She has never regretted having loved, and she does not rule out doing it again: «When I went to weddings, as a girl, I felt a sense of suffocation… I remember it well. That said, I have never regretted having loved. And if someone comes on the white horse, I’ll get on it». And again, on motherhood: «My identity does not depend on being a mother. It’s never happened to me, I didn’t look for a son, I didn’t chase him. That’s how it went.”

Feminist

In an interview with Vanity Fair, Serena Bortone has defined herself as a feminist all her life: «I am also a feminist in practice: I have always promoted colleagues who are younger, more beautiful, better than me, pregnant and new mothers. Maybe it’s in my DNA: my grandmother, who arrived in Rome from Ciociaria, volunteered for single mothers. AND my mother always pushed me to be an independent woman».

The meeting with Lady Diana

He told it to Corriere della Sera: «As a young girl I often went with my family to volunteer at the ‘Children’s City’ which hosted young people who came from difficult families. The founder was British and the then Princes of Wales, Charles and Diana, came to visit. I gave the princess a bouquet of flowers and He struck me with his very white complexion and for that special way of looking at others from below. A welcoming look that made you feel important… I was only 14 years old.”