Lucca, 12 June 2024 – “It would seem necessary to me to do a minute of silence, perhaps 60 seconds would be enough for Salis to be elected to the European elections”. Controversy broke out in Lucca after the words spoken in the city council by FdI councilor Laura Da Prato. Words, those of the councilor of Giorgia Meloni’s party, which in a few hours went around the web, even ending up on the front page of the most famous national newspapers. And if in a few minutes these words went around Italy, the councilor’s response also arrived promptly.
“I never thought I would achieve so much popularity for an expression, evidently ‘politically provocative’ like the one I expressed last night in the Lucca City Council, when I asked the President to hold a minute’s silence for the election of Mrs. Ilaria Salis to the European Parliament – explains Da Prato -. It is clear that this media resonance was guaranteed by the centre-left representatives, a minority of the Lucca City Council, who were obviously unable to argue on the merits, and who indeed I thank for providing me with the opportunity to delve deeper and clarify. My bitterness, and the profound dismay arose yesterday evening, shortly before going to court, when I listened to the words of Salis’ father reported by a journalist, who complained about the long release times and the risk that his daughter might not attend the first session of the Vestment. There I tried a deep sense of shame, which I couldn’t hold back. I wouldn’t have thought I had to mention “the world upside down”, but I must admit that there is no expression that is more fitting to the point.”
“The election of Salis is the most powerful expression of this title. It certainly is a world in reverse that of those who decide to nominate a person already convicted and currently detained, whose personal life speaks for her, whose behavior is known to everyone, without exception. Among other things, she is openly anarchist. Yes, I believe that there is a need for 1 minute of silence, because in the “silence” there remains all that center left that fills its mouth with moral ethics, and that condemns everyone regardless, even if only on the basis of pillory and suspicion. To that center left, who is the first candidate Soumahoro and then Salis, to reach the barrier level. To that center left of merit and of listening to the base and the territory, which nominates and elects a person known to the general public for well-known events, without skills or merit conquered not even in the party, which therefore throws everyone out in one fell swoop, without even a photo on the electoral card (I smile), colleagues and comrades who perhaps would have cultivated aspirations and collected merits to run for office and who for years, perhaps, had been waiting with loyalty and trust their turn”.
” Of course, a minute of silence would be needed, and perhaps not enough, to analyze where we have arrived, to understand the reasons for so much “reckless audacity” (to use a euphemism), to understand how one can so publicly (and in silence) succeed with a single move in completely destroying the meaning of politics, of its own role and purpose, and of institutions. And of course it is a “mourning”. It is the mourning of serious politics and passionate, of the politics of those who believe in the sincerity of intentions, in a higher purpose, of the politics of the militants, of those who are committed to everyday life and often do not have a space, nor a paragraph in the newspaper, and certainly not that of hypocrisy. I may be an incurable romantic, but I still hope that Salis, who appears to be the passionate anarchist who doesn’t believe in institutions, can demonstrate her faith to everyone and resign from that position which she doesn’t do and does her honor. . In any case, I believe that all of us today, we should do a minute of silence, hoping that in the end, we can wake up from the nightmare”
