Parma, scarred partisan tombstone? They cry out to fascism but… who did it

He didn’t have a black shirt. He was African. «Vile fascist disfigurement! thundered the Anpi, the partisans’ association, the day after the fire of the flowers under the tombstone of the anti-fascist Guido Picelli, in Parma, on 8 March. «Fascist vandalism!», down broadsides on Facebook, and still shooting at the old comrades. «It must always be remembered that fascism was not born in large rallies, but along the streets», warned the CGIL of Parma, «burning effigies, vandalizing places open to public discussion, burning the headquarters of cooperatives over the twenty years and storming the chambers of the I work, using violence even to the point of murder against those who oppose it”.

Cursed comrade, what a shame the assault on the memory of the leader of the armed resistance of Parma, deputy of the Kingdom of Italy from ’21 to ’26. There wasn’t a shred of proof but it was certainly someone nostalgic for Benito, obviously a Brothers of Italy voter who had committed the crime. «We don’t know», the Radicals started slowly, «it is not our job to identify those responsible and therefore we have no elements to classify this act as simple imbecile vandalism or that of political origin, but by observers whose non-violent history has also marked the darkest times of our republic we can only denounce an exacerbation of political violence. From the beating in front of a high school in Florence not stigmatized by the government», here are also the Radicals, «carried out by militants of Azione Studentesca, a group contiguous to the Brothers of Italy, to the interruption by the police of a school assembly in Enna (…) These are worrying signs that we haven’t been used to for years». In short, in the end it was the fascists also at the tombstone in Parma.

HOW MANY SCRAPS

And instead, in the end «a 31-year-old of African origins was identified and reported for aggravated damage», reads the press release from the Parma prosecutor, immortalized by the surveillance cameras present in the area as he set fire to it with a piece of flower card. It is a simple act of vandalism, an act therefore without any political matrix”. So what, comrades? Nothing. The comrades have not changed their posts one iota. The allegations remain. The rants. The usual tune. Theirs.

But on social networks, on the partisans’ page, there are also the leaks of dozens of users. Among these, Daniele Ambrogi asks: “Having been ascertained that the perpetrator of the gesture is a 31-year-old African, can it be considered fascist aggression?”. Then there is Matteo Rossi who underlines that the vandal was a foreigner, and it is here that the Anpi Parma has a great leap: “Matteo, it would be interesting to know the reasons for the gesture”. An African bundle. What is genius? It is imagination, intuition, decision and speed of execution. The partisan Picelli as a boy joined a company of strollers, and the performance of the Anpi of Parma today is no less. Between Anpi and CGIL there is a flood of photos of new flowers brought after those burned by the fascist. Even the children pose. It is as if reality does not exist. He was a fascist, period. But it’s one joke after another: “Do I still have time to bring a flower in response to the vile fascist disfigurement?”. All the newspapers and local dailies are ready to break the news – blowing the trumpets – of the fascist gesture. But once the truth is discovered, it is hard to find in the headlines that the perpetrator of the act is a non-EU citizen. Certainly an oversight. It can happen. Meanwhile, as we write, the Parma Anpi publishes a headline from the Republic on Facebook: “Anpi enrollment boom, 140,000 new partisans in defense of the Constitution and anti-fascism”. The attack on the partisan Picelli must have influenced it. It’s strange, there is a askaris who is cheerful…