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Rating: Dear Users (average and otherwise), I return to these pages at the prompting of some of your colleagues, of both genders, who in recent months, besides privately complimenting me on the opportunity for in-depth exploration provided by my writings, lamented my departure from the site and, albeit softly, invoked a brief return. To them - whom I leave anonymous - I dedicate, with the affection that many do not recognize in me, but which I well know how to bring to others, this work of mine.
The day on which I write to you (even though you will read me in a few days) is one of the most delicate for Italy's recent history, and, therefore, regardless of each of our political opinions, the hopes and the discouragement that the crises of the past six months - partially anticipated in my previous essays: e.g., on Mara Carfagna, or Silvio Berlusconi himself and the sensual, charismatic nature of his power and especially of his political message - have generated in the entire public opinion. I would not like to discuss this day in this essay, but the man who, in some way, detonated a latent crisis, a discord between the different souls of the Italian right destined to reverberate in each of our daily lives, and, ultimately, in the feverish hours of the awaited vote of confidence in the Chamber.
This man, as the most astute among you will have understood, is none other than Gianfranco Fini, a genuine witness of the turning point and change in Italian politics, viewed from the right, over the past thirty-two years.
Of Gianfranco Fini, the oldest among you, or at least the informed minority, will remember the tragic photo taken in January 1978 near the circle of Acca Larentia, the scene of a terrible crime against some young political activists of the conservative front, still unpunished today (see the effective account by L. Telese, "Cuori neri," 2006) and a symbolic watershed for the recent history of the country itself, considering that a very young Francesca Mambro decided to resort to armed struggle as an extreme form of reaction against the aggressions of the far-left extraparliamentary groups. With the tragic effects, of which we know well (see F. Bocca, "Tutta un'altra strage," 2009).
The older ones, or at least the informed, will remember the young Fini as the main successor of Almirante at the helm of the Italian Social Movement and the political struggles that, in the late '80s, after the death of his political mentor, set him against Pino Rauti, another representative of the Italian right, albeit linked to the ordovist experience - not devoid, in turn, of tragic implications in the Piazza Fontana massacre, whose equally dramatic anniversary was commemorated just a few days ago, even considering the absence of definite culprits (see G. Barbacetto "Il grande vecchio," 2009, not referring to Rauti). In these clashes, even within the party that saw him as a young militant (despite coming from a family with left-leaning traditions), Fini's distinctness emerges clearly compared to other politicians from the conservative front that emerged in the '80s and '90s, almost foreshadowing the well-known "Fiuggi turning point" with which, in 1995, under the auspices of Pinuccio Tatarella and other center-right moderates, the missina experience was merged into the party that better than others managed to represent the needs and urges of the small and medium-sized central-southern bourgeoisie, including military classes: that "National Alliance" that only in 2008 merged into the People of Freedom, to re-emerge and separate, albeit with a different formula, reborn from its ashes under the name of Future and Freedom.
But I do not want to talk about the present - fresh are the news coming from the Chamber of Deputies, Fini President - but of the past, and in the light of this book ('95): a book, written by De Cesare, himself the author of a more recent volume ('08) on the subject, that foresees, not even too subtly, the alleged transformation of Gianfranco Fini, recalling, with precise agency references - some of his declarations at times praising the Fascism of roots, at times Mussolini himself, at times values typical of a radical, and in any case non-moderate, right. A book that, evidently, emphasizes Fini's ur-fascism even after the Fiuggi turning point, ideally reconnecting the fascism of the '30s to a fascism of the '00s, characterized by only a formal renunciation of the old values.
On this thesis, however, I would prefer not to dwell, both because the discourse cannot be separated from a more complex analysis of Berlusconism, as we have outlined in previous essays, and because it is, in my opinion, outdated by events.
It is interesting, moreover, to focus, also from a linguistic point of view, on some of the main Fini declarations reported by De Cesare, reflecting on their ambiguous interpretation, and, not least, on the fact that they can still be said to express a moderate thought, disavowing the author's theses and highlighting the likely continuity between the Fini of then and that of the '90s, as well as the modern statesman of today.
Consider the idea that Mussolini's intuition of a third way as an alternative to communism and capitalism is still relevant, attributable to the Fini of the '90s. An argument certainly correct, especially if related to periods of severe economic crisis like the current one, in which the need for state intervention in the economy emerges clearly, and in which the paradoxes and shortcomings of Chicago School neoliberalism, adopted by the American West, appear evidently apparent: proof of this are the reform attempts by B. Obama in today's United States, following a line not different from the American New Deal of the 1930s and the contemporary fascist experience, under the guidance of Beneduce and Bottai. Or consider the declaration - undocumented in this book - that a teacher declaring themselves homosexual wouldn't be effectively reliable for teaching, not because of their intimate urges, about which nothing could be said, but due to the simple fact that self-affirmation by someone representing a secular institution open to all (heterosexuals included) clashes with the very exercise of the teaching function (just as a public profession of "heterosexuality" would clash with it). Even in this, the search for a balance between opposing positions seems evident, with the emergence of a thesis - later picked up by the current Minister for Equal Opportunities - wherein the equality among citizens prevails over any assertion of possible inequality (see the pages I dedicated to revisiting the work of Mara Carfagna, who, with Bocchino's support, could become one of the future leading women of FLI; but similarly, reflections on the figure of Vladimir Luxuria, forerunners of homologous reflections towards a Nichi Vendola).
Consider the criticisms directed at the Genoese judiciary for not investigating, in addition to the military class supporting Fini, the rioters and black blocks who brought the city to its knees in the tragic 2001. Even in this case, far from being a blanket defense of anyone who may have possibly abused their power during that summer, Fini's statement can be read as a search for truth that goes beyond the fences of old ideologies, and in which the essential principle is asserted that everyone must be held accountable for their actions, without exceptions (see my old review on the G8/2001)
Consider, finally, the courageous stance in support of the Jewish people, after racist and pro-Palestinian demonstrations by the extreme left in Turin. It is, in all probability, the most courageous stance against the crypto-racist positions typical of dissident thought, where anti-Zionism reflects new interpretations of economic relations in the Middle East, with the risk of falling back into the errors of the last, and negative, Mussolini of 1938 (see, also in this regard, my review of the book by Fiamma Nirenstein, as well as my criticism of anarchist thought and Bakunin in particular).
The figure of Fini, and here I am concluding, also justifying my return to the site, therefore represents the compendium of the moderate thought that, beyond the critical readings attributable to my previous essays, I had tried to introduce on Debaser and which I am continuing in my new activity as a spin-doctor for a left that knows how to dialogue with the moderate classes, well represented by promising young people like Matteo Renzi. I do not believe, for intellectual honesty, that Fini knows and wants to be the leader of such a left, as requested by some and as objectively denied by a similar publicistic environment. I think, nonetheless, that many left-wing voters, disillusioned by D'Alema, Veltroni, or Bersani and by the ongoing immobility of this political part, appreciating Fini's ability, may eventually support his political struggle within a moderate center-right alignment that has always known how to speak and dialogue with the left, and "from" the left, as the observations made earlier confirm.
We cannot speak for the future; nor for freedom. What remains is the pleasure of having, on Debaser, anticipated, the times, and of taking reality seriously well before reality takes itself seriously (see the recent rumors about the future leadership of Marina Berlusconi, certainly strengthened by the confidence just obtained from the Prime Minister), despite the clamor of the majority.
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