He had written: “National holidays belong to everyone. The institutions that appropriate it to hold squalid electoral rallies against the enemy using communist rhetoric (clenched fist) demonstrate that they are totally unworthy of holding the office. A question that cannot end here.
The mayor must give us adequate explanations. And the Prefect must exercise his role as institutional guarantor of the territory. Those directly involved, in the meantime, should be ashamed and apologize.” And the councilor of the Fratelli d’Italia Carlo Rufo Spina presented a question to the city council of Rimini to request the resignation of the deputy mayor Chiara Bellini, guilty of having celebrated April 25th with a speech in which she had attacked the government, concluded with a closed fist salute. Among other arguments, Rufo Spina argued that “Indeed, the resistance of the right and centre-right through the monarchist, liberal and Christian Democratic parties began on 8 September 1943, together with that of the left of the socialists and the action party. Missing from the roll call were the communists, whose successor the vice mayor acted as, who fully entered the resistance only in April 1944 or after Stalin’s green light (because the communists took orders from him)”.
The mayor Jamil Sadegholvaad replied: “Thank you Councilor. His question is part of a script, a reflection, already read and observed more than once. Rimini, Cesena, Milan, Bologna, Marzabotto, Florence, hundreds of other smaller municipalities, even in our province: the post April 25th has also this year seen the now classic plot of controversies around the Liberation, which is a celebration for all every time it turns into a battle of opposing positions. I make my own the ‘definitive’ words that the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, wanted to give to the country during the last ceremony on 25 April. I summarize: ‘Without memory there is no future’ and ‘Popular unity is possible and necessary around anti-fascism’. I believe that in this chamber we can only agree with our President.”
And the mayor continued: “Let’s try to delve a little deeper into the sacrosanct concepts expressed by Sergio Mattarella. ‘Without memory there is no future’. And memory, history, tells that the Liberation occurred through the sacrifice of tens of thousands of women and men who belonged to the most diverse political experiences. The Liberation was not carried out exclusively by the left, the center, the right. It is not just red, nor just white, nor any other single colour. I mention, because the matter is often overlooked, the many soldiers who chose to climb the mountains and lost their lives in the name and on behalf of an Italy that no longer wanted to be subjected to a dictatorship, nor to be occupied. To them, often forgotten, I address a thought and thanks also on behalf of our city. I also draw here from our President of the Republic: ‘The Resistance was born, a movement which, in its plurality of people, motivations, origins and ideal drives, found its unity in the need to put an end to the Nazi-fascist domination on our territory, to establish a new coexistence, founded on law and peace.’. Point. This is the country’s memory, this is history, incontrovertible. And this is why it is a mistake to read April 25th as the celebration of only one side: the decision, or rather the necessity, the moral obligation to reject fascism and Nazism from Italy, in the present of the war and in the future in that we live in, was a decision, a necessity, a collective moral obligation. In consideration of this, dear councilor, I find it difficult to find myself in the meanders of history described in your question in which, it seems to me that you maintain, how the so-called left had a role that was not only marginal but even late in the organization of the Resistance. And, I add without fear, that Mattarella’s words quoted ‘answer’ one of his questions.”
“Twice, with the mayor’s armband, I participated in the ceremony on April 25th, I spoke and I never ended the speech with my fist raised. And not because I have anything against that gesture: several times, both as a student and during political initiatives, I have shown it with pride precisely because of what it has always represented in the history of the world. Which is not, as you might argue, communistism and the color red: just think of the significance that that upward fist had for the fight against racism in the United States and in other parts of the world. But that act, wonderful but which can be interpreted as biased, in an institutional context, of everyone’s celebration, I would not have done it.”
“I then move on to the second value expressed by Sergio Mattarella and that is, I quote, ‘Popular unity is possible and necessary around anti-fascism’. Well, councilor Rufo Spina, I have lined up your press release of April 25th and your question today. They are the beauty of 1,064 words and 6,902 characters: half a novel from which the word ‘anti-fascism’ is absent. The disparaging expression ‘self-styled anti-fascists’ is present, solitary like the particle of a famous commercial for a mineral water from a few years ago. Stop. I understand that for you the April 25th celebration has nothing to do with anti-fascism. Mind you, I’m not asking you whether you’re anti-fascist or not. Allow me to suggest a more accurate historical analysis given that, in his words, April 25th would only be ‘the reconquest of democracy and freedom after a bloody foreign occupation’. Allow me, this is a somewhat reductive definition. April 25th is not the liberation from the Normans, the Landsknechts, the Austrians but the expulsion of a violent and dictatorial regime called fascism, which led Italy to a wicked war, which allied itself with the Nazis, which opened wide after the 8 September the gates of the country to the German army itself, supporting it through – this bloody and monstrous – Republic of Salò”.
“I conclude, dear Councilor. The Deputy Mayor will continue to do her job as administrator, which she is doing well and with clear results for our community. You will probably continue to remain of your opinion and with your vision I believe the story is wrong and partial, calling for resignations which, I tell you, will not be accepted”.
Press
: “In your opinion, April 25th has nothing to do with anti-fascism”){kind=link}