Ignazio La Russa is about to become the second position in the state: we propose the cult interview that Edoardo Sylos Labini made to the future President of the Senate in 2015 on the occasion of the Riccione Incontra review: because the interviews on life are evergreen (Editorial)
Mephistophelic voice and an indestructible, angelic passion for politics. A familiar virus, politics. Ignazio La Russa, who believed and fought in the MSI until he was elected deputy for the first time in 1992 – “I remember that shortly before being voted on I went to the theater to see Beppe Grillo. I liked the show very much. Grillo hasn’t changed: only then you paid to see him, now just go to his rallies ”- from the leadership of the Youth Front he passed to the Ministry of Defense of the Berlusconi government, he is the soul of the Italian right.
Sicilians are an island. “Pirandello said it: Sicilians are an island within an island. Sicilians integrate everywhere, but they remain islands. I was born in Paternò, on the slopes of Etna, I have lived in Milan for fifty years, I can also speak Milanese. But with a strictly Sicilian accent “.
From Sicily to Switzerland, one way. “My father, with some idea of greatness, sent me to study in St. Gallen, in an international Swiss boarding school. I was 13. It wasn’t easy to adapt, yet there I learned respect for the ideas of others. While remaining faithful to their own. Then I graduated in Law, in Pavia ”.
The first meeting. At 10 years old. “My father was supposed to hold a meeting in Ragalna, a small town on Etna. He was held back by a commitment and sent a friend of himself to him. Who had the brilliant idea of typing a speech and making me read it, ‘there is no Antonino La Russa, but there is still a La Russa’, he said. I threw the paper away. I improvised, imitating my father. Obviously, I received a shower of applause. But we lost the elections by 12 votes ”.
Almirante vs. Berlinguer. “Giorgio Almirante was an extraordinary speaker. He did not ‘trombone’, he conversed with him. He was able to conquer. Then, of course, if those who admired him had voted for him… the law ‘full squares, empty urns’ was valid. On the contrary, Berlinguer was a very modest speaker, but he knew how to go to the heart of his electorate. In Riccione I see that there is a Villa Mussolini and an avenue Berlinguer. Sounds good to me. However, I would like there to be an Almirante street under Berlinguer’s house as well ”.
First love for a Jewish girl and the examination of conscience of the Italian right. At a very young age at the boarding school in Switzerland there was the first crush on a young Jewish girl. “The racial laws promulgated by Mussolini were crazy nonsense, I have no problem recognizing that. It should be remembered that in 1995 the National Alliance was born on the basis of a profound examination of conscience, testified by the ‘Theses of Fiuggi’. In them an entire chapter is devoted to the critical rethinking of fascism. An afterthought that has never been done on the left. Which left-wing politician has the courage to openly say that communism was a vulgar, terrible dictatorship? ”.
The “Ramelli case”. “As a lawyer, I never wanted to defend anyone who was charged with mafia or relating to crimes of a sexual nature. I never wanted to defend entrepreneurs during Clean Hands. I am proud, however, to have taken the side of Sergio Ramelli, the seventeen-year-old from the Youth Front who was brutally killed in 1975 in front of his house with a wrench by some left-wing extremists belonging to the Avanguardia Operaia. He killed because of the right, because at school he made a theme against the Red Brigades and for this accused of being a fascist. It took ten years to resolve an investigation that was continuously hindered ”.
Milan like Belfast, in the midst of the civil war. “It was not easy to be on the right, in the ranks of the Youth Front, in Milan in the seventies. We were aware that we lived in a Belfast, in the middle of the civil war. The disproportion with the movements of the extra-parliamentary left was crazy, but we didn’t feel like heroes. And we weren’t, despite the fame, aggressive. We went in and out of cinemas once the film had started, we went to the stadium with the scarf covering our faces, we sat in restaurants with our backs against the walls. They attacked us in twenty to one. Once my wife literally saved her life by standing between me and a wrench, which wounded her shoulder. The fault of that moment lies entirely with the institutions: the struggle between generations was the alibi for achieving the ‘historical compromise’ between the DC and the PCI ”.
What is the right, what is the left? “The spirituality of life is on the right, materialism on the left; the meritocracy is on the right, the 6 political on the left; the family as a cell of the state capable of generating citizens is on the right, the family in which only affection counts is on the left ”.
Speaking of Berlusconi … “Berlusconi was a political genius. He understood that only by putting Umberto Bossi and Gianfranco Fini together could it be possible to beat the left. He created a political glue that the center-right now lacks ”.
Say something right. “From an early age I was passionate about the history of the Bandiera brothers. Here, when in certain circumstances the value of the homeland is more important than oneself, the family, the love for democracy, that’s something right ”.
Chieftain. “My wife had a passion for American Indians, so my children, as a middle name, I gave Indian names: Geronimo, Cochis, Apache. Luckily I didn’t have a daughter, what I would have called her, Moonbeam? ”.
Fiorello and the Simpsons. “Many have imitated me, the best is undoubtedly Fiorello. The evil of Italian politicians is that they aspire to please everyone; it is enough for me to please my tribe. The Simpsons voice acting experience was one of the funniest things I’ve ever done. I became friends with a great dubbing director, who was the voice of Homer Simpson and who was our sympathizer. When he died, of a bad disease, I went to the funeral. The voice actors and actors gathered there looked at me in amazement, ‘what is La Russa doing in the midst of all these left-wing people?’ ”.
A little bit of politics. Marò and the “Battisti case”. “I think the feeling of national pride no longer exists. We are a country that returned the Maròs after they granted them to us, because the then Prime Minister Monti could not ruin certain economic relations with India. Our special bodies, respected all over the world, would be enough to get them back in 5 minutes. I remember that when I was in defense I refused to sign agreements with Brazil, demanding the return of Cesare Battisti, a murderer sentenced to life in prison by Italian justice who continues to mock the country from Brazilian beaches “.
Isis: a solution. “We have not yet understood that we must defend ourselves against those who want to undermine our vision of the world. In this sense, an agreement with Putin is necessary, other than waging war on him… ”.
An agreement against landings. “The emergency of landings in Italy can be resolved. With Berlusconi we signed an agreement with Gaddafi to stop the trafficking of men at the origin. Can’t you now? We militarily occupy the Libyan ports ”.
Culture is always left-wing. “The PCI, according to the post-war pacts, could not govern Italy. Thus, through a truly revolutionary action, he occupied the schools, the courts, the culture. An example. The dancer of 883 was a militant of the Youth Front. Therefore, when we founded AN, I asked Max Pezzali to help us compose the party anthem, which he did. But when some reporter found out, he denied it with a stubbornness that made me angry. Then I understood: if he admitted that he had helped compose AN’s hymn, he would no longer work in the show ”.
Crazy for loveAnd. “A madness for love? I still have to do it “
La Russa: “My first love for a Jewish girl” | CultureIdentity