Ignazio La Russa, the man who can never keep silent
The problem of La Russa – moreover the second state official – is not so much the mistake of inappropriateness, but the chronic logorrhea which, after understanding, leads him to remedy by continuing to say that he was wrong in good faith. The italics of Battista Falconi
The story – better: the telenovela – of Ignazio La Russa is a classic summer lightening. The question no longer has anything dramatic, it has now decidedly turned towards humor.
As he always did, yesterday the president of the Senate fell into the inevitable oxymoron of someone who says "I'll shut up" and, when he speaks, contradicts what he says. One of those rhetorical deceptions loved by logicians, like the paradox of the Cretan liar, who stated that all Cretans are liars but, thus, lied himself.
La Russa's vice, sin (venial if we were talking about an ordinary gentleman) was known at least from the previous political media story that overwhelmed him: the one on the massacre in via Rasella which provoked the retaliation of the Fosse Ardeatine. Even then he slipped alone into a sensational gaffe in which, in trying to affirm a pinch of historical truth in a very clumsy way, he fell into the quagmire of ambiguities, misunderstandings and the inevitable distortions made on his words by those who wanted to attack him politically. It is known that, once you have ended up in a quagmire, especially if faecal, you have to freeze if you don't want to spread the stench. And those who love him thought: why doesn't he let others say these things, for example a good revisionist historian?
However, La Russa's problem is not so much the mistake of inappropriateness, as the chronic logorrhea which, after understanding, leads him to remedy by continuing to say that he was wrong in good faith. What he did at that juncture, among other things, in an exhilarating "non-interview" that the perfidious journalist, after having nailed him in the corner, made it into his newspaper, starting it with the quotation mark: "Enough, I won't speak anymore". Incipit regularly denied by the continuation of the statements.
The same things more or less happened with regards to the senator's controversial relationship with the Movimento Sociale and, therefore, his democratic reliability and trustworthiness with respect to fascism and neo-fascism. The person, we recall, is the deputy of the President of the Republic and we immediately thought of Sergio Mattarella, with ill-concealed amusement, when the Apache affair broke out, the son suspected of rape at the judicial level.
Here the error of logorrhea was made worse by the aggravating circumstance of a precedent which should have led him to milder advice. A case still in everyone's memory that had clearly shown how, for a public figure whose son is suspected of rape, the only way not to get out of it is to issue innocent statements and assessments which, if they are not, appear as accusations against the alleged victim of the alleged violence.
La Russa, although she knew perfectly well what was going to happen, replicated Beppe Grillo's skit in a photocopy. And things inevitably went the same way, with the difference that while Grillo is the very famous founder of a party (which, moreover, rests on justicialism as one of its fundamental pivots), Gnazio holds a non-political but institutional office. The second of the state.
When he was elected to this very high seat, choral protests were raised by those who suspect that at the heart of his convictions La Russa is still a bit fascist. But let's skip over this. Instead, those who know him and perhaps are on the same political side as him had a much different fear, namely that even as president of the Senate he would continue to open his mouth and give it breath. His compulsive, irrepressible and incurable speech is incompatible with a position that requires confidentiality, prudence, caution, discretion. The one at the head of Palazzo Madama is not a suitable place for people who love the limelight. See Lorenzo Fontana, president of the Chamber also elected with strong prejudices against his positions of fundamentalist Catholicism, who has so far conducted his duties with exemplary tranquility, keeping secret. As is appropriate when doing certain jobs.
From Gnatius now comes a new flood, the umpteenth verbal flood. More words, words, contradictory words. Reading the headlines reporting his statements in today's press review is surreal: "I wouldn't say that sentence about my son again", "I wouldn't repeat those sentences", "I wouldn't make those statements again", "I wouldn't make the note again", "I would not I would say those sentences more”, Il mea culpa, La Russa repents, La Russa on her son: “I believe him but today I would not repeat those words”, La Russa clarifies the words on her son: “I never wanted to attack the girl”, La Repentant Russian: “I was wrong to speak. I believe in my son”, La Russa's mini Vietnam: “The sentence about my son is wrong”, “Ignazio's reversal: “I would not repeat the statement”.
But you don't have to reverse, you slam anyway. You have to stand still. And shut up.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/ignazio-la-russa-tacere/ on Thu, 27 Jul 2023 05:59:46 +0000.