Historians From Italy

"Solve the mystery of the Mig23 and you will have found the key to discovering the truth about Ustica."

"It will be under the aegis of the invincible Axis, the new Europe of Law, Justice, Freedom and Love. The Europe of the future, which is the goal of that bloc of countries headed by the tripartite pact between Italy, Germany and Japan."

"Nothing more than messianic socialism, socialism that aims at a golden age, a city of sunshine, perfect justice, nothing more than such socialism repels the Christian conception. Christianity, due to its insurmountable pessimistic prejudice, cannot even conceive of the total salvation and liberation of men on earth, and by virtue of an earthly order. Hell is the punishment for violated charity. Only punishment can achieve justice. Eternal damnation is the great disciplinary force of the world. (I, I; p. 16)"

"Yes: the case of Prezzolini was one of the most significant in contemporary culture in our country. Prezzolini embodied a constant critical and sceptical need in a world of culture increasingly tending towards conformism and orthodoxy, or rather conformism and orthodoxies."

"(About Giulio Andreotti) Opposed to general ideas, pragmatic and realistic like few others, with his own streak of “Catholic Giolittism”."

"Mrs Gandhi was moving closer to the West. Even within the non-aligned countries, she was forging ever stronger ties with the world of European democracies. :*In Italy, grief but also fears for the future, “'L'Unità”', 1 November 1984"

"There can be no united Italy without the foundation laid by Garibaldi. The Garibaldi legend is, in reality, the only national thread running through our modern history."

"(About Bettino Ricasoli) Grumpy, reclusive, wild: almost always shut away in his Brolio, from which he rarely descended, and with the calculated slowness of a sovereign. But the only one who exercised undisputed authority over all the other notables of Tuscany: “the only eminent individual known, revered and esteemed in Italy and abroad” (as Celestino Bianchi, his devoted secretary and incomparable collaborator, would say a few years later, even though he would not grant him the intimacy of “tu” in return for his many services). He was also the court of last resort in all doubtful or difficult cases, such as during the days of bloodshed and tension that followed the Aspromonte incident. (I partiti politici nella Firenze capitale, Ch. II, pp. 82-83)"

"Charity and forgiveness: this is the “socialism” of Christ, this is Christian society. In life there is not, there cannot be, absolution (only God will absolve); but there can be, there is, and there will be an amnesty, a daily amnesty. Life is a punishment (this is the meaning of original sin, the deepest interpretation of human pain): but it is a punishment that is pardoned in life and absolved in death. This is the greatest justice. (I, I; p. 17)"

"The purpose of the Church, the sole and supreme repository of revelation, remains in any case to summarise and resolve politics in religion. But the purpose of the State, of any State worthy of the name, is precisely the same, reversed: to resolve religion in politics, God in man. Every State is also a Church; political authority is necessarily moral authority; political history logically takes the form of “sacred history”. Its political ends are also moral and religious: they encompass and reabsorb within themselves all possible morality and religion. (I, I; p. 20)"

"(About Naples) I think it has such a magnificent tradition of hybridization in its nature that this discussionseems particularly fruitful to me, and also because Naples has always been very lively from a cultural point of view: I am thinking of the Aragonese cultural circle. Rome has hardly ever been a cultural capital, but Naples has. It also has very strong ties with the East, and there is a tradition of philosophical reflection on freedom. It is a capital of thought, and it is no coincidence that a free spirit like Leopardi chose this city. It has traditions that endure alongside extreme avant-garde movements."

"When I hear Grillo shouting, Italians, it sends a chill down my spine, because it reminds me of someone who shouted the same word with the same emphasis from a balcony in Palazzo Venezia."

"(About Mario Capanna) In short, a leader of protest: without restraint, but also without the protection of party apparatus, always forced to be at the forefront, to make mistakes, and to pay the price personally."

"Someone said of Sergio Mattarella: in politics, he is tenacious and persistent, like a falling drop of water."

"Reporter: If you waited a little longer to write, everything would have disappeared. Some say that oblivion is better... Giampaolo Pansa: Trouble, trouble. What is the point of living if you give up on the truth? The history of a country is made up of those who fought wrong wars and sought absurd goals. We must accept this and honor those who suffered, not necessarily sharing their memory, but accepting it, giving it citizenship. [...] The left always brings up this anti-fascism. Berlusconi like Mussolini, the authoritarian state imposed by Mediaset... Sovereign lies. From the right, you can reflect on that yourselves. We should start again from this mutual recognition of the public right to one's own memory."

"Words can turn into stones, stones into bullets. It has already happened: Italy was held captive by terrorism for almost twenty years. It is a danger that could return, and I would not want Grillo, even against his plans and programs, to become the vehicle for this terrible evil."

"A yellow-green government? It is not a trivial center-right government, but a government of terrorists. A terrorist government that wants to destroy everything, wipe out Italy and its democracy. We are on the brink of an abyss."

"(To q:it:Angelo D'Orsi who criticized him for the absence of any footnotes in his revisionist texts on Fascism) You sell 2,000 copies and I sell 40,000... do you want footnotes too?"

"The hardest [defeat] came in 2014 when Matteo Renzi's government, which had been in office for a few weeks, dismissed the heads of all state-owned companies. At that time, you were the CEO of the large Finmeccanica group. You knew everything about that group because you had been working there for 12 years, climbing the ladder step by step. And, together with a small group of young executives, you had steered it with a steady hand. You never talked to me about your downfall, but I could sense your bitterness mixed with anger."

"Giorgio Bocca can be summed up in a few words. He was a great journalist, but also highly partisan and prone to serious errors. We worked together at the same newspapers, starting with Il Giorno and then spending many years at La Repubblica and L'Espresso, but we were never friends. Bocca was a complex man: he did not like competitors or people who contradicted him. We fought many battles against each other, but there is no point in dwelling on them. Today, Giorgio is gone. I don't know if Italy will miss him, as some of his colleagues at La Repubblica say, but he will certainly leave a void... which I, however, do not regret."

"With your departure, that world has ended completely. For a week now, I have been trying not to think that you, dear Alessandro, have gone who knows where. And I confess that I am terrified of dreaming about you. But, my beautiful son, my beautiful boy, I will always welcome you with open arms. [...] I love you. Giampaolo, your dad."

"The left wing party has always told lies, starting with the invasion of Hungary and continuing through the Popular Front campaign. All parties lie, but some more than others. The Italian Communist Party, however, has always lied."

"Fabio Fazio}} He too is red, a cherry red that is unmatched even on the vermilion Rai Tre. But he loves to play the opposite role. That of the innocent little priest without a parish, friend to all and enemy to none. In reality, in today's Rai, fragmented into sultanates, there is no one more partisan than him. His hand is wrapped in gray velvet, but inside he hides a poisoned stiletto. It is with this blade that Fazio practices inflexible censorship. [...] Fazio had invited Pietro Ingrao [...]. In a moment of memory loss, the old communist leader claimed that the Italian Communist Party had strongly distanced itself from the Soviet invasion of Hungary in 1956. A complete falsehood, as history teaches us. But Fazio and the invited audience were careful not to object. Not even a murmur, a cough, or a sidelong glance. Why? Edmondo Berselli, a free-thinking intellectual who recently passed away, explained it this way in L'Espresso: “Because at that moment, they were celebrating the apotheosis of an impossible communism, a utopia, a great dream, an assault on heaven. And so much the worse for the facts, if the facts interrupt the emotions.” Fazio is not interested in the truth of the facts. Especially when he paints a picture of Italian history and reality that clashes with his narrow political horizon."

"There is a shy Ciriaco De Mita. And also a grumpy De Mita. And then there is the introverted De Mita. He is not easy to get along with. And sometimes he is suspicious, very suspicious. [...] He is someone who does not mold himself to those he is dealing with in order to gain their approval, but who likes to speak plainly and tell you what he thinks to your face. In short, he is tough. Cunning and tough. And sometimes mean."

"Satire is banned on Rai, except when it is directed against Il Caimano, hated by the red sultans. These are the masters of the many talk shows controlled by the guerrilla left. Those who, with public money, taxes and license fees paid by us foolish taxpayers, have given themselves a fanatical mission: to send Berlusconi and the center-right to hell. [...] They know they have a militant audience behind them and they excite them in many ways. [...] They move like the Khmer Rouge in Pol Pot's Cambodia. They don't cut off their opponents' heads, but they attack with the same rapid brazenness, provoking the enemy and launching surprise attacks. “Come away with me” is the clearest example of this tactic. [...] The story is an example of what Italy has become. A Babel where only the destroyers are in charge. While the Casta fills its mouth with the word “legality” and at the same time destroys it. Like the double-dealing Fini. He will have the kiss of Fazio and Saviano, even though he is glued to a chair he no longer deserves."

"I was outraged and frightened by the assault on the Senate, which saw a team of hooded men break through the first entrance. The Senate, like the Chamber of Deputies, belongs to all Italians. And I am appalled by the question posed by La Stampa on Thursday. It said: “Must we respect the Senate? Even if Schifani is there?” This small, not very ironic detail is enough to suggest that the left is no longer playing with fire, but with death."

"Today's street protests are not being led by students. They are being led by another privileged class: university professors and researchers. They do not want to lose their privileges, which are considerable for the former and modest for the latter. That is what matters to them, not the comatose state of Italian universities."

"Well, I must confess that I haven't read all of Giampaolo Pansa's books thoroughly because I feel nauseous when I pick them up, but I know more or less how they are perceived by those who read them. We cannot get inside Giampaolo Pansa's head, so we cannot know whether this man, who used to be a left-winger, had a change of heart at some point and really said to himself: the defeated deserve to be remembered... an injustice has been done in Italy... Whether he realised the effect his books were having, or whether he realised it but cynically carried on because they made him a lot of money. We can no longer say; certainly the books are despicable, not because they may contain inaccuracies [...]. But I would not be at all surprised if these books only reported authentic episodes, because it has always been known in Italy that obviously anything could have happened in the Resistance. These are things that even in the 1950s the fascists, who incidentally were perfectly free in a democracy to publish books in which they recounted these things, so everyone already knew about them even before. [...] So, dramatic episodes? Tragic? Crimes? Crimes committed by partisans with the authorisation of the Allied authorities, who generally told the partisans to “clean up”? Who can say it doesn't matter? Of course, it is always a tragedy, but if we look at the crimes committed by the liberators, then what? The armies that marched up the peninsula committed crimes against the civilian population, against prisoners of war... Ever since they landed in Sicily, and yet the people of Italian cities welcomed them jubilantly, happy that they had arrived. So, the problem is that you can always find individual episodes in any context to put anyone in a good or bad light: what matters is who was on the right side and who was on the wrong side. And I challenge anyone today who turns up their nose at the partisans or has Pansa's books on their bookshelf in plain view to say: 'But would you have preferred the others to win? Would you want to live in a world where Hitler had won? And where the gas chambers would have continued to operate? Really? If you tell me that sincerely, I'm fine with it, okay. But I want to see which readers of Pansa's books would answer yes to that question."

"Ah, objective journalism! How many times have we deceived readers by waving this phantom flag. (p. 49)"

"Not all Italian journalists lie. But some of us, in different eras, have always lied. We lied on behalf of the newspaper owner, especially when the owner's number one interest was not to sell news. We lied out of deference to the ruling political power. We lied to favour the opposition. (p. 51)"

"Many red partisan bands emerged with the aim of suppressing members of the resistance front parties. The reason for this is clear: those who were not communists but were active in parties such as the Christian Democrats, for example, could become new adversaries. And this new enemy would certainly have opposed the PCI's revolutionary strategy and its plan to seize power in newly liberated Italy. These were, therefore, targeted political crimes. Aimed at terrorizing opponents within the anti-fascist alliance and destroying their ability to resist the communists' plans. (pp. 200-201)"

"[According to the left] Revisionism is as dangerous as cyanide. But if it is practiced by the left, it becomes an aspirin that must be swallowed because it will only give us good health. This is the fake revisionism of the usual suspects. It certainly has not won. And I don't think it ever will. (p. 328)"

"A friend asked me, “Do you have any regrets?” I replied, “Absolutely not. Also because I have discovered a humanity I did not know. What's more, I have understood what disease is undermining the Oak.” The evil, which is no longer obscure to me, is the fear of having to reflect on oneself and re-read one's political history. And, consequently, the refusal to discuss with those who force you to show your cards and stop playing a reticent and timid game. (p. 342)"

"Italy these days is no longer a normal country. In normal countries, acts of violence such as those committed against the bookshop in Bassano [the locks on the three entrances were sabotaged and blocked] do not happen. And if they do, they are usually severely punished. As deserved by those who arrogate to themselves the right to do anything in the name of a totalitarian perversion that authorizes them to be arrogant towards those who think differently. But in our country, the number one rule, which states that those who offend must be punished, is hardly ever applied anymore. (pp. 54-55)"

"I have learned that judges should not be criticized. They are a very powerful force and jealous of their autonomy."

"How does a police officer act? When he encounters someone breaking the law, he catches them and throws them in jail. So that they dare not disobey the law again. The Gendarmes of Memory behave in the same way. They consider themselves the sole guardians of the only authorized and legitimate account of the internal conflict that bloodied Italy between the fall of 1943 and April 1945. This then led to a harsh reckoning with the defeated fascists. And anything that contradicts the narrative they defend must be refuted. Or, better still, silenced, ignored, erased. (p. VII)"

"There is no doubt that without the PCI there would have been no partisan war. And the Resistance would have been a modest undertaking. But with the PCI, the war of liberation also became a revolutionary war for the conquest of power in Italy. And this subversive project authorized a succession of errors, lies, intrigues, abuses, crimes, and mysteries: all rubbish hidden by a historiography subservient to the interests of that party. (p. IX)"

"Istria, Dalmatia, Fiume, Pola, Zara, the exodus of 300,000 who did not want to live under Tito, their arrival in Italy amid insults and spittle from activists organized by the PCI... It is useless to talk about these tragedies to the ‘guardians of memory’. They only give the green light to memories that suit them. Instead, they prefer to keep the memory that causes them difficulty locked away in the guardhouse of silence, to silence it, to pretend it does not exist. (p. 365)"

"The news program Sky TG24 is sick with anti-Cav sectarianism. It seems to me that it has become Murdoch's Telekabul. A twin of Tg3, Rai's red news program. Strange? Not really. The owner of Sky, the Australian Rupert Murdoch, the Shark, does not like Berlusconi at all. And since the beginning of time, the donkey has always been tied where the master wants. Especially if it is a television donkey."

"Gianfranco Fini, the most surprising chameleon in the national political zoo. He owed everything to Berlusconi, starting with his escape from the post-fascist ghetto. Yet he tried to kill him. With a continuous guerrilla war, which began immediately after he joined the People of Freedom party. It is pointless for Fini's squires to keep repeating that Gianfry was expelled by Berlusconi. Italians are not stupid."

"We are used to saying that we must defend ourselves in trials and not from trials. Yet I would like to see how the many politicians who preach this would behave."

"(About the daily newspaper la Repubblica}} A guerrilla paper that goes into battle every day to destroy Berlusconi."

"We are a patient and hardworking people. Yet it is wise not to forget the old adage: sometimes even ants, in their own small way, get pissed off."

"This applies to young journalists. Not all of them, of course, but many. They are ignorant. They may be intelligent, but they are ignorant. In the sense that school has taught them little in recent years. And they have learned even less on their own. (p. 28)"

"There are no valid reasons for such chaos, which has a very clear political objective: to bring down the Berlusconi government. Perhaps this will not be a difficult task, given the comatose state of the executive. But even if it succeeds, it will not erase the hypocrisy of too many media outlets. Newspapers and television are mostly on the side of the protesters."

"It also makes one think that the myth of equality with men is having perverse effects, and that many girls now go out at night without taking the most basic precautions. It would be nice, of course, if men changed and accepted this new freedom for women, but we know that this is not the case, and perhaps never will be. A little realism therefore does no harm, and it is better to avoid dangerous situations. It is certainly not by forcing reality and trying to bend it to our desires that we change the world."

"The ancient idea that men must protect women is perhaps one of the first customs that feminism has erased, since it meant that women had the illusion of protecting themselves. Women, especially young women, need a social context that surrounds them with a protective shield, and they need supportive eyes to watch over them and perhaps even warn them in case of danger."

"(About Maria Montessori) Italians know her as a maternal and reassuring lady who appeared on the thousand lire banknote for a long time, the only woman depicted on our banknotes, but in her long life she was a transgressive and restless woman, so much so that when asked what nationality she was, she replied: “I live in the sky, my country is a star that revolves around the sun and is called Earth”."

"[Philosophers and psychologists] have revealed the sense of openness that motherhood brings towards the transcendent, towards the “infinite world”, to use the words of Clotilde Leguil, who writes that recognising that the female body is radically different from the male body “implies a transition from a closed world to an infinite universe”. Leguil quotes the verses of the poet Antoine Tudal, much loved by Lacan: “Between man and love, there is woman. Between man and woman, there is a world. Between man and the world, there is a wall”."

"(About q:it:Francesca Cabrini) Not only her relationship with space, but also her relationship with time was modern, so dominated by haste and speed: “Hurry, hurry and cheerfully, my daughters,” she wrote to the nuns, even urging them to act “ardently and quickly”, a phrase with an almost futuristic flavour, which perfectly conveys the sense of her movement in the world."