FIFTH COLUMN
Of Marcello Veneziani
When Salvini and Meloni were not yet born, was born in Italy, from the womb of The Bourgeois, the League of Brothers of Italy. The father was naturally Leo Longanesi. He dreamed of giving birth a national movement, conservative, popular and bourgeois, that he wasn't neo-fascist, liberal let alone Christian Democrat. But it was seriously post-fascist, since he noticed Longanesi: “Our democracy has only one evil, there is only one defect: that of existing as an opponent of fascism; to live it finds no other justification than that of fighting a dead fascism with Mussolini. Thus we witness a struggle of vertical corpses against a horizontal corpse.". Fantastic. It was the 1955 e 63 years later we are at the same point, even with the grillini in government.
Then and now, there was a need to invent oneself, a movement that represented a large and excluded world, or poorly represented, antagonist to the left, to clericalism and progressivism. We were in the Christian Democratic era, the communists had not yet been admitted into the antechamber of governments, Regions did not exist, Italy was recovering greatly at least in terms of well-being, he had found an acceptable compromise with the past based on oblivion, there was an economic boom and Italians were giving birth a lot, especially in the south. What should we say now, that the world has changed, we are in the European Union, debt is skyrocketing, the regions have destroyed us, we are full of migrants and empty of young people and elites, Italy is duller than then, they no longer have children and the dead outnumber those born? That we need a League of the Brothers of Italy... But the League exists and, if within a month the mood of this psychotic country still doesn't change, it is now even the first party. At his side, small and vainly looking for his visibility and his role, there is what remains of AN and the MSI, called Brothers of Italy, actually led by a sister from Rome, good and incisive on TV.
How come we feel only superficially represented, and discomfort still prevails over belonging, extraneousness prevails over participation? It depends on age, from the disappointments collected, from the eternal discontented syndrome of the Nostalgic Depressed who lives cursing among the ruins? Or is there some good reason to feel like a stranger in your own home, more than migrants and not just because of them? Right, there is satisfaction in seeing the losers, the left melted, the establishment gripped by mild panic attacks, i Papi, and Presidents, the Illustrious who are the opposition... It's a bit of the sadistic pleasure we felt with Trump's victory, which was above all the defeat of that master America, of those 4 o 5 families in charge, of that liberal world, radical, affected by ethical and cultural racism. But the satisfaction of seeing the losers is enough to rejoice in the winners in government? In the name of populism disliked by the strong powers and by Europe, we must like even the grillini who still make threats every day to those who are well to make those who are ill enjoy themselves; but enjoy only with resentment, because if you take away real or presumed privileges from someone, you don't make people better off with egalitarian redistribution, a hundred or a thousand. You only share crumbs of resentment, you only satisfy envy and the evil eye... But we hope, the opportunity is unmissable, there has been a change, even if you don't understand the route. The world is turning a corner. And he confides, in Salvini and his League, with the Brothers of Italy in the refrigerator. And with the uncertainty of whether we will then find a centre-right with Northern League influence, how do you say; or the scenario has now changed and the fight will really be between populists and potentates. Don't say please between the elite and the people, because a people without elites, without a ruling class, without aristocracy, it's not going anywhere. Rather, say oligarchies, set, potentates without legitimacy. In addition to the tribunes of the plebs, capable elites are needed.
But let's go back to Longanesi's League of Brothers of Italy. He was the president, the young Piero Buscaroli was its secretary: two people totally devoid of political and organizational sense, apart from books and newspapers. He made his debut with a crowded conference on "What is the right in Italy" at the Odeon theater in Milan. With a "beautiful and useless" speech by Longanesi, Gianna Preda will say. Skeptical like Mario Tedeschi about the initiative. And in fact Longanesi soon tired of his movement, annoyed by the crowd of disappointed people, complainers, angry that was already there then and that was pressing him everywhere. And the right-right faded once again, crumbling between small stones, monarchists, DC right and liberal right. The story of that Longanesian abortion is told a little by Buscaroli A nation in a coma, taken from Vitriolic pens by Alberto Mazzuca (edited by both Minerva). The epilogue of that adventure is a dinner at the Rosati in Rome in '57 with Montanelli, Pannunzio, Flaiano, Benedetti. Montanelli, who owes his salvation to his skepticism, accused Longanesi of “having made us sit in the most uncomfortable seats, at war with everyone... And all this to defend the world of Longanesi where there was only Longanesi". Montanelli says that he, Leo, he listened to him “with his mouth set in a pleased smile. And he was right because all these accusations against Longanesi were his apology". Thus the League of Brothers of Italy perished and its Author was saved. But shortly after, a 52 years, Longanesi left, short and lightning-fast as always. Leaving many unfinished business and all his toys: the publishing house, the Bourgeois, the right, the League of Brothers of Italy.
The Bourgeois, August 2018