Good Friday quickly turns live on La7 into a very un-Christian message. All “thanks” (so to speak) to Christian Raimo, who indulged in a totally senseless utterance from his side. It all starts from the analysis that the program “L’Aria che tira” was doing on the case of Ilaria Salis and on the confirmation by the Court of Budapest that the woman, in prison for over a year because she was accused of aggravated assault against two neo-Nazis, will not be able to leave Hungary to return to Italy. Together with other guests – such as Laura Boldrini, Maria Teresa Meli, Vittorio Feltri and Sandro Iacometti – it is then the turn of the sign and editorialist of the Tomorrow.
In expressing his opinion on the merits of the case, Raimo begins his speech by recalling the terrible judicial case of Sacco and Vanzetti, sentenced to death almost a hundred years ago in the electric chair in the United States for a murder they had never committed. “At a certain point the two of them decide to change their defensive line and begin to politicize the matter,” he says. “Here there is an anti-fascist who goes to Europe, therefore to our house, to beat up gods neo-Nazis“. Then comes the “peak” of his reasoning: “What should be done with the neo-Nazis? In my opinion you have to beat themhe did well”, is the sentence that puts the entire television studio in turmoil.
Even Boldrini and David Parenzo, certainly not very ideologically distant from Raimo, immediately distanced themselves from the professor’s statements: “You don’t hit anyone, violence is always wrong”, states the former president of the Chamber of Deputies. But the Roman writer doesn’t hold back at all. “I teach my students at school…” and here he is interrupted by the host who abruptly asks him: “Are you going to teach how to beat up fascists?”. And he replies: “Well yes, beating up neo-Nazis I think that’s right“, thus confirming his previous statement. Parenzo and the other interlocutors all take him back in a rude manner. At that point Raimo, perhaps aware of having said something stupid, backtracks slightly: “I teach my students that democracy is arrived after serious opposition to Nazism”.
The images of the beating that took place in Budapest in February 2023 are broadcast again (for which Salis has always declared her non-involvement) and Christian Raimo’s refrain always remains the same: “When there are armed neo-Nazi paramilitary militias colluding with the government in where there is no separation of powers, what you need to do to contest that kind of wound to democracy? You can only contest it in any way”. Connecting from Milan, Iacometti then provocatively proposes giving a medal to the attackers and then Raimo takes things further: “Our Republic is founded on a just violence“, he underlines, and since Hungary “has such organic links between the government and Nazi paramilitary forces, at a certain point what needs to be done to try to defend democracy?”.
Another “style” lesson from someone who works as a teacher.