Carlo Rovelli was supposed to represent Italy at the Frankfurter Buchmesse 2024, the Frankfurt Book Fair scheduled for October 2024, and instead his event – participation in the opening ceremony – was canceled due to his attack on the minister of Crosetto defense from the stage of the Concertone on May 1st. “I dared to criticize the defense minister”, writes the physicist and leaker on Facebook, publishing the email with which he was given the sack, “my speech was cancelled”. «Dear Professor, it is with great pain that I am about to write you this letter. With great pain but without pretense», wrote Ricardo Franco Levi, Commissioner of the Frankfurt Fair, «the clamor, the echo, the reactions that followed his speech at the concert on May 1 make me think, they give me indeed, the almost certainty that his lesson, which I had so strongly imagined and wanted for the opening ceremony of the Buchmesse with Italy as Guest of Honor, would become an opportunity not to savor, guided by his words, the fascination of research and to glance at the boundaries of knowledge, but, instead, to relive controversies and attacks». Levi stresses that the decision is “personal”, and that he does not want the event to turn into “a source of embarrassment for those who will represent Italy that day”. And he adds: «I am inclined to think that you were the first to have imagined the scenarios that your words would have opened up. This certainly does not serve to lessen the weight of this letter. Letter I never wanted to write. I hope, at least, that it can contribute to keeping me from losing her friendship. With the hope of soon being able to read a new book of yours and, perhaps, of meeting you in person, I send you, dear professor, best regards”.
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