It is called “Todi City of the Book”. It is scheduled for June 17, 18, 19 and 20. It has ambitious goals: “To win a prominent place among the main national events”. It has the patronage of the Municipality and the regional council of Umbria, led by the center-right, and Etab, the Tuderte assistance and charity organization. And it is formally organized by the “Castelli di carta” association. Association which, according to the local Democratic Party, “seems to exist only on paper”
Behind that name would hide the shadow of CasaPound, the neo-fascist organization that in these days is also leading the clashes in the anti-Covid squares. The suspicion lies not only in a schedule in which reference names of the ultra-right galaxy appear: from Paolo Bargiggia, regular commentator of the National Primacy, a periodical just censored by Facebook and directed by the former national head of culture of CPI, to Marco Gervasoni , “discharged” from Luiss for his violent tweets. But also in the curious coincidence of a telephone number in the “contacts” section of the Festival: the same of the bookshop greeted by outstretched arms and squad choirs of the Altaforte publishing house in Cernusco sul Naviglio, 500 kilometers north of Todi, at the head of which there is Francesco Polacchi, a proudly fascist entrepreneur already excluded from the Turin Book Fair in 2019.
Altaforte, who is Francesco Polacchi, fascist and entrepreneur with a history of violence
by PAOLO BERIZZI
A network of associations noticed this and signed an appeal, “Todi: The city that reads becomes the city of the sovereign book”, in which they denounce and document the strange contiguity between the publishing house and the festival.
“Once again – reads the joint press release signed by Anpi, Cgil, Rete degli Studenti, Udu, Unione delle donne, Libera, Libertà e Justice and other local realities – the sovereign and fascist right finds fertile ground in Umbria to show off and propagate its retrograde and anti-constitutional ideology, complete with institutional patronage. As women and as heirs of those who fought for liberation from Nazi-fascism, we ask that patronage be withdrawn from a festival that belongs to those who publicly declare themselves fascist of the third millennium and therefore goes against every principle of our Constitution ”.
Indignant Elisabetta Piccolotti of the Italian Left who recalls the words of Halina Birenbaum, one of the last survivors of the Holocaust, pronounced at the inauguration of the Turin Motor Show: “I suffered too much to be with those who propagate the ideas for which I lost my family “Piccolotti writes:” Hosting a Festival with this business card should be deeply embarrassing for anyone in Italy, but evidently it is not for the Umbrian legislative assembly and the Municipality of Todi which has even promised to consider a possible contribution. economic, after checking the financial statements. This despite the fact that the festival aspires to become the most important showcase for intellectuals of the sovereign, racist, male chauvinist and revisionist right “.
That the Festival lands right there, in Todi, does not surprise the local realities: “The council of Todi is not new to the propaganda use of books: in November 2017 a resolution asked to move from the municipal library ‘children’s books with contents concerning sensitive educational issues ‘, identifying as a solution’ the placement of texts that have as their content sensitive themes, controversial on a scientific level, and divisive among families such as homogenitoriality, gestation for others, rather than same-sex unions, and other contents of a sexual, in the sections for adults even if recommended by publishing houses for children ‘age groups “. The librarian was also transferred to another office.
To the same mayor who led that junta, Antonino Ruggiano, elected by a coalition that from Forza Italia reached CasaPound, also the Pd Todi asks “to perform an act of (dutiful) courage and withdraw the patronage of this event, if he really believes. in the values of the republican and anti-fascist Constitution and does not want to make our city fool again “.
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