Scurati: 'The spectre of fascism haunts the home of Italian democracy'
The monologue that the Strega prize-winning writer was supposed to read on CheSarà on Rai3. Viale Mazzini cancelled the contract
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Key points
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This is the text of Antonio Scurati's monologue that the Writer Strega prize was supposed to read tonight on CheSarà on Rai3. Rai cancelled his contract.
Matteotti and the open-minded opposition to the fascist dictatorship
"Giacomo Matteotti was assassinated by fascist hitmen on 10 June 1924. Five of them, all squadrists from Milan, professionals of violence hired by Benito Mussolini's closest collaborators, waited for him in front of his house. The Honourable Matteotti, the secretary of the United Socialist Party, the last person in Parliament who still openly opposed the fascist dictatorship, was kidnapped in the centre of Rome, in broad daylight. He fought to the last, as he had fought all his life. They stabbed him to death, then dismembered his corpse. They folded it in on itself so they could shove it into a pit dug badly with a blacksmith's file'.
Mussolini's responsibility
."Mussolini was immediately informed. In addition to the crime, he was guilty of the infamy of swearing to the widow that he would do everything possible to bring her husband back to her. While swearing, the Duce of Fascism kept the victim's bloody papers in his desk drawer'.
The Nazi-Fascist massacres in Italy
"In this false spring of ours, however, we do not only commemorate Matteotti's political murder; we also commemorate the Nazi-fascist massacres perpetrated by the German SS, with the complicity and collaboration of Italian fascists, in 1944. Fosse Ardeatine, Sant'Anna di Stazzema, Marzabotto. These are just some of the places where Mussolini's demonic allies cold-bloodedly massacred thousands of defenceless Italian civilians. Among them were hundreds of children and even infants. Many were even burnt alive, some beheaded'.
The choices of the post-fascist ruling group
."These two concomitant mournful anniversaries - spring of '24, spring of '44 - proclaim that fascism has been throughout its historical existence - not only at the end or occasionally - an irredeemable phenomenon of systematic murderous and massacreous political violence. Will the heirs of that history recognise this for once? Everything, unfortunately, suggests that they will not. The post-fascist ruling group, having won the elections in October 2022, had two paths in front of it: repudiate its neo-fascist past or try to rewrite history. It undoubtedly took the second path'.
