April 10, 2024, 3:28 pm
2 min read
And so it was that Girolamo Russo – whom everyone called Mimmo – after his arrest, with very serious charges, he returned to his birthplace. He recites the distancing statement from the Brothers of Italy, the political group in which he militated: “Girolamo Russo, long time simple member of the Brothers of Italy no longer having any role in the institutions, he was immediately suspended. He will have the opportunity to defend himself in the courtroom, but his accusations make him incompatible with the Brothers of Italy”.
The sidereal distance that we want to interpose is precisely in the first line: in that ‘Girolamo’ instead of the confidential ‘Mimmo’, as everyone, in fact, until yesterday, called him. If memory serves, that is Totò Cuffaro he suddenly became ‘Salvatore’, at least in certain dispatches, after the well-known events.
Here, of course, there are no guillotines ready for use. Nor against the former councilor who has the right to be considered innocent until proven guilty, despite the accusations, because guaranteeism always applies. Nor against the Melonians who did the only thing that could be done, according to party custom, towards a politician who passed under their flags, after a long wandering.
If anything, a reflection could be ventured on the relationship between politics, in its entirety, and the personnel in the field. A transversal discourse – from right to left, net of the sacrosanct presumptions of innocence – which remains political, not judicial, and which calls into question the selection of colonels, like ordinary soldiers.
The idea is that in times of elections, but not only, choose the bearer of votes, without standing there to quibble about his identity, the meaning of his consent and his career. What counts are the preferences that shine in the eyes of the list makers, like the dollar in Scrooge’s gaze: the rest comes (much) later.
Mimmo Russo, a life on the right, with an Orlandian parenthesis, it was the classic and profitable glue of consensus. One of those characters, on the border of many experiences, who try to count the distillate necessary for each reference system. How? In this and other events, what was the attitude of those who welcomed him like others? Have we wondered about the nature of numbers? Or have we greeted yet another ‘messiah of the cross on the symbol’, without looking too much? It applies to Russo, now disowned by everyone, it applies, in fact, to everyone.
No one can criminalize popular favor per se and it would be utopian to ask for a complete blood test of candidates or candidates. But greater attention would avoid such incidents, provided that morality is still a current value. Otherwise you’ll just have to wait the next ‘Girolamo’ on duty.
Published on
April 10, 2024, 3:28 pm
