He promises a “full-bodied and full-bodied” start in Ferrara and says he is sure that “it will be fun”. Andrea Scanzi arrives in Ferrara and brings with him “La Sciagura”. On May 16th the irreverent pen of Fatto Quotidiano will be at the Teatro Nuovo to present his new show produced by Loft Produzioni and based on the bestseller of the same name published by Paper First.
In the memory of the city of Este, “Sciagura” recalls the former fascist hierarch who was among the main defendants in the Castle massacre in 1943. But Scanzi’s reference, although colored in black, is aimed at today’s issues, or rather at the “Chronicle of a government of runaways”, as the subtitle says.
What should we expect from your ninety minutes on stage?
“La Sciagura” is a political satire show. I haven’t engaged in political satire since the “Green Cazzaro”.
Let’s talk about 2019, before Covid.
Exact. I haven’t done any political tours for four years. I felt the need, just the need, to do it because I find that we are faced with a horrifying government. Furthermore, a government established in a very disturbing historical moment. And in my opinion journalists, writers, intellectuals, categories of which for better or for worse I am part, must take sides in certain historical moments.
When politics is silent, Pasolini said, it is up to the poet or the intellectual to speak.
And in this month and a half, from April 29th to June 7th (after which we vote), I want to take sides, to get involved. We will try to do one date a day. I will take care of the misery that governs us for a month. It will be a full immersion in the trenches and on the barricades.
First trivial question, is it more difficult to satirize today than in the past?
In my experience as a fifty-year-old, it has always been quite easy to satirise. In the sense: if you know how to do it, if you have talent, you can do satire at any historical moment. You have to have the talent, the desire and the courage. Having said that, I personally made the easiest, most stimulating, most urgent satire with Berlusconi in his final phase – for obvious age reasons. Then against Renzi I had fun like a child mocking what was one of the most horrendous governments in the world. The most difficult were those somewhat soft, technical governments, like Monti and Draghi… but, well, it’s not difficult to satirize Meloni and her because they do practically everything themselves.
I read that Gaber and Guccini also enter this show. How?
In all my shows there is a lot of music. I live on music and I come from music. In “La Sciagura” there will be moments in which I am accompanied by some songs that I have chosen, from Mozart to Springsteen, from U2 to Johnny Cash… Gaber and Guccini come into play because, at a certain point in the show, I make fun of musical tastes of Meloni and this right, who listen to Gaber, Guccini, De Andrè, but basically don’t understand shit. Because if you listen to De Andrè and sing The Fisherman, you obviously only understood “la la la la la” about the fisherman. This aspect drives me crazy, but I also mock it because it is proof that this government suffers from a cultural inferiority complex, because it has no singer-songwriter except Povia and therefore has to take those of others and pretend that they are not left-wing and that are not adverse to Meloni.
I think of our mayor, Alan Fabbri, who says he is an admirer of De Andrè and then talks about “tumors to be eradicated” referring to people (criminals but still people) or march around the nomad camp with terrified children inside.
We are always there. I don’t know Fabbri personally, but I can’t believe it. They are all people who quote De Andrè at random. Salvini is also another person who says he knows De Andrè and Gaber very well and I believe it. It’s true that he knows the “Story of an Employee” by heart, but he didn’t understand shit about it. I mean, you can’t be mad at migrants and then listen to Khorakhané, Il Pescatore, Via del Campo. De Andrè is the singer of the last, of the dispossessed, of transsexuals, of homosexuals, of peace. And these do the exact opposite. The song is not just entertainment. It’s entertainment if you listen to Gigi D’Alessio, if you listen to Laura Pausini. If you listen to De Andrè you have to understand the word even before the music. Talk about things you know, talk about Povia, leave De Andrè alone.
In Cazzaro Verde you dedicated part of a chapter to our Naomi.
He is a legend, Naomo Lodi is a legend. Tell me how he is, what he is doing… is he running for the European elections?
No, he is running for the next municipal elections in June as the leader of the League.
Perfect. I have fond memories of Naomo Lodi. He cheered me up during the lockdown phase. When I did Facebook live broadcasts and had millions of views, all I had to do was say “Naooooomo” and raise the tone a little on the “O” and people would throw themselves on the ground. And then those incredible videos that were filmed by Clean Sweep where he promised to kick the journalists’ ass like that. Naomi is a mythological character. Then he has a cursus honorum both political and, from what I have read and know, partly extraordinary judicial. I’m pleased that you want to run again for the next municipal elections in June in Ferrara.
Will there be a bit of Naomi in your show?
All my shows have an initial ten minutes in which I talk about the reality of the city that hosts me. And in Ferrara there will certainly be a lot to say about Lodi. In fact, I’ll go right in with his photo on the big screen.
A sublime departure… Returning to the “national” themes of your show, what do you think of the recent Rai controversies? Am I referring to Scurati’s canceled monologue and to the deputy director of Tg1, Incoronata Boccia, for whom abortion is a crime?
It is a government that censors. It is a government that abhors dissent. It is a government that has occupied military man Rai, as Renzi had done, as Berlusconi had done, as the centre-left had done. But now it’s worse, because there is an ostentation and a pride in doing all this. I don’t want to say that it is a fascist government, even if there are some fascists within the government; in my opinion it is an illiberal government, it is a government that brings us ever closer to the Orbán model, which is actually a model in Meloni’s eyes. Here, in addition to ostentation, the second new element, which is terrifying, is the cultural and intellectual paucity of these leaders. Despite the Bulgarian edicts, with Berlusconi in Rai there still remained some good products. There were some extraordinary programs, like those of Dandini. Now there is nothing. What remains is this terrifying mix between the arrogance I was telling you about on the one hand and amateurism and solemn inability on the other. Then add this, let’s say, “dictatorial” or in any case absolutist attitude that detests freedom of the press and the result is the expropriation of the poor public service, which deserves a very different fate.
The signs regarding freedom of the press are also worrying.
The climate is terrifying. Think about the two examples you cited: Scurati and Boccia. They are two complementary but also different things: in the story of the deputy director of Tg1 there is the identity element of this government, that is, the retrograde, homophobic, sexist obscurantism. The other element is the annoyance that this government has more than others towards freedom of the press and investigative journalism. All those who try to investigate are massacred, as happened to Ranucci, again on Rai, despite Report being the only successful program on Rai3.
Tell me, I’m more in court than in the editorial office these days!
Then you know what I’m talking about. It is an attack that all investigative journalists are suffering. As soon as you open your mouth they sue you, they obscure you if they can, they censor you if they can. And they don’t give a damn that you’re 90 years old like Canfora; they don’t care if the complaint hits a blogger who doesn’t have a penny and therefore if you make the reckless complaint you’ll kill him. It’s a government like this, it has no respect for freedoms, much less freedom of the press. And this scares me.
