For decades Adalberto Baldoni has dedicated himself with passion and historiographical acumen to the reconstruction of the environment, of political choices, of the theoretical-political debate of the Italian "Right".. We believe that in his latest effort he achieved his highest point iter of a researcher. In the “Final Reflection” of the book that we are about to present it is defined as “a scrupulous and objective reporter in search of the truth” (p. 684). Actually, in the pages of Right wing without veils 1946-2017. History and background from the birth of the MSI to today, recently in bookstores for the publisher Fergen (for orders: fe.gen@libero.it, euro 22,00), has proven to be a worthy historian.
In over seven hundred pages of the volume, makes a wealth of documents available to the reader, on the history of the MSI and AN, endless and discusses it critically. The book can be read in one sitting: it is not built solely on objective analyses, but he is animated by profound empathy for the object investigated. In the opinion of the writer this should not be considered a limitation, on the contrary! The empathetic approach opens up unsuspected aspects of scientific non-fiction, enriches it with personal experience, intense and painful. They can be valid, what a fitting introduction to these pages by Baldoni, the words that Beppe Niccolai said to present another of his works "Your book, you see, It has the merit of making us think. It is a great merit, above all because it takes us straight to a fundamental consideration: “inside” us there is the material to build, to engrave, to leave your mark, to weave a perspective of change” (p. 427-428).
The reader must be aware that Baldoni, reconstructing the history of the seventy years from the foundation of the MSI to the present day, provides a strong response to the I want to be dissolved of the last ruling class of the "Right". It provides essential tools for reconstructing a shared historical memory, for the benefit of new generations, deprived of any value reference and significant examples to emulate. The narrative does not only go through political events, to move from 1946, or the various electoral rounds with the presentation of the biographies of the MSI elected representatives , but it offers the salient moments of the internal ideological debate, focusing on the birth and affirmation of national trade unionism, on the first editorial experiences in the area, on ecological commitment, on the sporting activities of the Fiamma Center, on alternative music and the female presence. The volume is accompanied by a very rich photographic section, composed of 250 Images.
The origin of the post-war Right is identified in the organism, formed around Pino Romualdi, of the "Senate", who was responsible for coordinating the ranks of the ex-fascists as well as closing with the experience of the "Everyman". Il 3 December 1946 was held in Rome, in Renato Michelini's studio, father of Arturo, a meeting in which it was decided to unify the various and dispersed groups, in the nascent MSI. After the drafting of a ten-point program which had as its premise an "Appeal to Italians", il 26 December the birth of the new party was ratified. It is good to point out that, for reasons of political expediency, the founding fathers emphasized the post-fascist character (not neo-fascist) of the Movement. Propaganda was entrusted to the "talk newspapers" of which, prominent protagonist, it was Almirante. The author records, as well as the birth of the first sections and the consolidation of the organisation, the cultural effervescence of the press. It focuses on the first electoral experiences, the crucial one of 1948, during which the MSI was penalized by the DC which proposed itself, with the support of the Vatican and the USA, as a reliable Westernist party. The first congress took place in Naples in June of 1948. De Marsanich summarized, in the motto “Do not deny, do not restore", the political positions that led to the first Almirante Secretariat.
The souls of the entryist right and the socializing left collided, giving rise to a difficult coexistence e, for certain traits, ambiguous, which will condition the history of the party. The meeting of some young people was decisive, including Paolo Andriani, Clemente Graziani, Fausto Gianfranceschi, Pino Rauti, Enzo Erra with Julius Evola. The philosopher freed the “Children of the Sun”, the youth movement that referred to him, from nationalism, he taught them the criticism of communism and triumphant Americanism, he immersed them in the world of values ​​of Tradition and induced them to overcome sterile nostalgia. Cousin Siena, who belonged to that group of young people, aristocrats and revolutionaries, recognized that Evola's books "they offered to young militants[…]a superior sense of their struggle” (p. 63).
Despite the centrality in the intellectual debate, Evola's message was practically ignored by the ruling classes who followed one another at the helm of the Movement. On the contrary, the path of insertion and conditioning of the DC was attempted, reaching the unfortunate decision to hold the VI MSI Congress in Genoa after having granted the votes to Tambroni in Parliament and having distanced himself from Milazzism. The tragic riots exploded in the Ligurian capital and in other cities, they gave Moro the opportunity to open on the left. Another great wasted political opportunity, in terms of an alternative to the system, was the protest: after participating in the battle of Valle Giulia, il 16 March 1968, the intervention of national volunteers led by MSI leaders to free the university of Rome from the "Chinese", broke the attempt to build "generational unity". In the 1977 Biagio Cacciola's Roman Fuan tried again and, after Lama's expulsion from "La Sapienza", significant writings appeared on the walls of the capital "Caradonna ’68, Lama ‘77”. The author of the volume and other exponents of the young right, they had, since the 1960s, animated “transversal” pop venues. In the book, Baldoni recalls the passionate atmospheres of the "Red and Black" and "Dionysus" evenings and allows the reader to appreciate the irreverent nature of the cabaret of the "right-wing anarchists", of Cirri and Pingitore, creators of the legendary “Bagaglino”.
An environment, the youth one, constantly searching for new forms of expression, creative, tired of preconceived closures and open to dialogue. Between the 70s and 80s, this tension will lead to the "Gramscism" theorized by the New Right, in the Hobbit Fields, in alternative radio and music production. This fervor allowed a besieged human environment to "resist" and survive the second tragic phase of the civil war, recognizing themselves as a militant community. Baldoni reconstructs the regime's misdirections, the vile ambushes, the acts of heroism of too many young people that they left on the pavement, assieme ai loro sogni, life. Un mondo che seppe resistere alla scissione di Democrazia Nazionale, subsidized, is remembered in these pages, by Silvio Berlusconi.
The wind of Tangentopoli overwhelmed the men of the First Republic and with them, paradoxically, he Msi, foreign to the system. The new political aggregations were, To the right, built on the ideal abjuration of a past still pregnant with a future. Fiuggi and AN did not simply close the MSI's political experience, they crumbled a human community. Men without culture or moral uprightness, beneficiaries of a positive political climate, they rode the wave of protest and built their personal fortunes (not just political). The recantation has produced nothing but emptiness, complete failure. The new leaders were perfect interpreters of Louis XIV's motto: “After us the flood”. So it was.
Our hope is that the current state of affairs will be resolved as soon as possible. The human examples and ideas that are drawn from Baldoni's pages, we hope they will also animate the next seventy years of our lives.
*Right wing without veils 1946-2017. History and background from the birth of the MSI to today, The ferry (for orders: fe.gen@libero.it, euro 22,00)
@barbadilloit