Here, he did it. He does not have the face of the condemned awaiting trial, but of the wolf who smells the blood: “For freedom I am ready for prison”. Who would have thought that here in San Giovanni in Persiceto, one of those small towns that evoke Peppone and Don Camillo, that someone like Salvini would have used the words of Guareschi to seal the final scene of this theater of the absurd: an alleged kidnapper of souls who accuses himself of intercepting common sense. And to free Emilia from the left, as if this land were itself a “prison”.
The bar to the right of the stage already has the frappe of the upcoming carnival. In front of six hundred people applaud, “Matteo, Matteo”. A little further on, in the square next to it there are three hundred sardines, who have called themselves this morning. This remains of Emilia as we remember it since the days when Peppone on the evening of the vote had to understand only if he won a lot or a lot: a lot of civil participation, even in the cold (the weather on the I-phone marks two degrees), two opposite squares without the need for police, which also exists but is not needed. But this is the campaign, for the first time, of the two Emilies, which, due to a series of circumstances, astral conjunctions, political errors, the wind of the times has turned into a stress test of the conflict between the Palace and the People. Or, if you prefer, between a dam and a wave. Maybe it holds the dam, but, in fact, it is only a dam that defends. Hear Salvini, right in these squares, blame cowardice on the left, while praising his trial, proud of the accusation of violating the law, because he knows that any verdict will be overturned by the people’s (or populism) court. Listen to him: “These of the Democratic Party do not even put their face on their ideas. Instead I go to court with my head held high in the name of the Italian people. If they arrest me, they must find a nice big prison to keep everyone in it ”.
You may wonder how it is possible, seen from the left, that if you have values, you are afraid of defending them because they are contrary to popular common sense or the latest poll, thus abdicating the function that you started to have in dealing with the people. If you have principles, you vote for them, you explain them, even here – remember Middle class and Emilia red – where more demanding things were explained. This January 20 election campaign tells of fear. And he says that, in fact, the Democratic Party is no longer in a region where the question of security arises in an icastic way precisely because it is a developed region: social, environmental and physical security are a whole, and if you don’t keep them together you don’t speak to your people. There are no banquets, especially in the deep province, as there is no courage for a national narrative because, out of fear that the vote against the government is too politicized “we must try to keep it low, on a regional level”.
The dam and the wave precisely. The wave that talks about everything except Emilia. Not even a proposal by mistake, in this rally, always the same that Salvini carries around like a song in the various dance halls. The dam, entrusted to a generous campaign by the outgoing governor rather than the Party’s organizational force, frightened. Trying to keep Emilia away from everything: a government that does not work, an even worse alliance, the Gregoretti, the unnamed security decrees. A few hours earlier, in San Lazzaro, they brought me with great courtesy to a restaurant where Salvini had an election lunch. Not even an insult or an unpleasant joke against a journalist and an ever tender newspaper. In front of a plate of tortellini, a lady told me that she voted for PCI, in fact she still feels communist, but she votes for the League because “it cannot be said that everything is fine, and I have to resort to private health more often on health “. In front of it was another lady who recounts the years in which she spoke with Bossi and dreamed of Padania. Then the old Christian Democrat, very nice, and also the missino, unbearable, who, not recognizing the interlocutor, explains that “journalists are shit, desperate and in fact they are all communists”. Ilaria Giorgetti, who was in Forza Italia, says: “Here there are people who were in the Democratic Party, once on the left. It is not the world, to say, of entrepreneurs who were in Forza Italia. You would call it a people. “
Indeed it is so. It is the cow that entered the corridor, someone said it in unsuspected times, at least in good time. And now you risk breaking your house. Salvini is seen to believe it. He is convinced of winning, he has the face of someone who does not transmit annoyance, unease, fear. He eats, drinks and has fun: tortellini, penne with sausage, roast pork and three glasses of wine. He no longer smokes and took a few pounds. He is the cow that occupies the scene with his body, which makes a rally last half an hour, but the next hour he spends it taking a selfie, because touching the body is the breaking of the barrier between the Palace and the people. Another chapter of the stress test is staged in this provincial restaurant: “We are real Italy, made up of real people. But do you know that this evening there is a dinner for Bonaccini organized by chef Bottura? But how the fuck can you pay a thousand euros to go to dinner with Bonaccini? Do you understand why we win? Because here 25 euros are enough to eat and there are teachers, artisans, traders, people who work “.
Twenty years ago, the writer was in Bologna at the university. There was an election in Bologna and party leaders, convinced that there was a security alarm, called Marco Minniti. After a careful study of the statistics, he explained that in Bologna there was no security alarm: not a murder, a single arson attack in a year, when there were three a day in Calabria. At the end of a party assembly, a companion from Bolognina approached him and said: “I have people in front of the house who drink and then pee in front of my door. This disturbs my wife. If you answer me with the statistics, you have not understood a shit. ” He won the right that conquered the municipality of Bologna. It is this feeling, because security is a feeling, a perception, as well as police numbers, which this time in Emilia is on a large scale. Physical security, and in fact Salvini will end his campaign on Friday at the Pillar (the famous neighborhood of the white Uno), economic security of that part of Emilia, farmers and traders, who unloads on the “system” the anger towards globalization. Salvini’s message is not a program. And not even an embarrassing candidate. The message is “let’s change”, for the people and in the name of the people. It is not by chance that he speaks above all to the fleeing communists: the multiple-named “Signora Enza” who voted for PCI, “Enrico Berlinguer” who would be ashamed of his heirs, “the left bank that left the works councils for the boards of directors”. The more you vote on the government, the higher the turnout, the more you feel you can win. And then tomorrow another tour country after country, Ozzano, Castiglione, Porretta, Vergato. The more you vote on the region the more the dam holds. Who would have thought: one accused of kidnapping, proud of it. It is clear that the crisis comes from afar. But January 26 is near.
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