Fifteen Molfetta – April 25th celebrations in Molfetta. Mayor Minervini does not go too far: speech without sides. Anti-fascism has been missing. A missed opportunity in an important historical moment

MOLFETTA – «We must recover that movement that was at the basis of 25 April 1945. That unified sense of liberation that came out of those young people, from those deaths and from that violence, from the people who loudly shouted never again wars and from the Ventotene Manifesto who hoped for the birth of a Europe of cooperation because every time nationalism is created, conflicts are created and resources are used for an industry based on competition between nations instead of the growth of free people, culture and peace”. Thus the mayor of Molfetta, Tommaso Minervini, in his speech on the occasion of the celebrations on 25 April. Behind him the Monument to the Fallen of all wars, all around the representatives of the Heirs of History and of the fighting and arms associations, of the police forces, of the trade unions, of the associations, numerous common people, of the Council, of the Town Council. «Today – continued the First Citizen – we have Europe but we do not yet have a Europe that works for peace. Today we have wars everywhere and we are suffering the deception of international history which wants us to take sides on one side or the other as if the deaths of some are different from those of others, as if the violence were different, instead of interposing as solicitors of peace. This is the great trap we are all falling into: thinking about one or the other’s reasons instead of saying that this is the time to stop the wars. It is necessary to recover the unitary spirit of those years and the spirit of the Ventotene manifesto, that is, to create a community of nations that works for Peace.” A speech, that of Mayor Minervini, who received a lot of criticism for not taking sides on one side or the other (also due to the presence in his council of people who do not hide their closeness to the worst right), an indolence that has characterized much of his administration and created many disagreements, which he could have avoided. Anti-fascism has been missing. But clarity, for those who refer to the Molfetta anti-fascist Gaetano Salvemini, in this circumstance, would have done him honor. As some have said: it was a missed opportunity. Perhaps, as someone had suggested to him, it would have been enough to read the text by the historian Scurati, censored by the right at Rai. We would have expected in this circumstance, with the neo-fascists in government and with all the controversies on freedom of opinion, that Tommaso would have a burst of pride, as his teacher Beniamino Finocchiaro would have advised him, especially at a time when he is losing every day pieces of his coalition. What must be done to stay afloat! © All rights reserved