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Clashes this afternoon in Naples saw the police in riot gear and around thirty young people protesting against the presence in the city of General Roberto Vannacci, who is a candidate for the European elections with the League and who in the city to present his book Courage Wins. The demonstrators attempted to overcome the barriers and the police cordon protecting the area where the general was located, launching water balloons to the agents’ address, striking their shields with rods of flag: the police responded with batons. There are currently no injuries.
Vannacci’s reaction: “I don’t understand why they don’t come to the room in peace, I am for civil confrontation, I would listen to them and discuss with them. And anyway no, I don’t fear for my safety and I don’t feel surrounded. I thank the protesters, I invite them to come to this room to express their ideas, I have never shied away from confrontation. But this invitation I make never succeeds. I don’t feel surrounded but I’m concerned about the context that has been created.”
Regarding his candidacy with the League, Vannacci says he doesn’t believe it is divisive within the party then he underlines that opinions are fought on the level of ideas. “It strikes me to see that it is necessary to resort to an out-of-the-ordinary deployment of law enforcement for my initiatives: it doesn’t come from a civilized country like Italy. I’m an expert but since I published the book, everything has happened. The owners of the premises that host my initiatives are threatened and my sentences are often manipulated.”
On fascism: “I have never defined myself as anti-fascist because I don’t think it is useful to define oneself as such, it is not required by any rule, by any law. Fascism ended 100 years ago and therefore one is not anti-something that does not exist. The oath that both politicians and soldiers take – added the general – does not require them to declare themselves anti-fascism, this is a specious declaration that some people use to assign a quality certification of first class or second class citizens”.
Vannacci then spoke about the controversy that erupted regarding separate classes for disabled people. “Excuse me? No, because I never said that disabled people should go to separate classes, so I don’t see why I should apologize for something that I didn’t say and that I don’t mean. What I said is easily readable in the interview itself. I didn’t write the title but the journalist did it in a very specious and instrumental way he interpreted my words completely incorrectly.”
