Mattarella: “Fascism was an accomplice of Nazi ferocity”

“Fascism, with the Republic of Salò, was an accomplice of Nazi ferocity”. Fresh autumn. The president Sergio Mattarella arrives with the raincoat in Ampezzo, in Carnia, to celebrate the eightieth anniversary of the liberation of upper Friuli from Nazi-fascism, “the last part of Italy to be liberated”. The price paid here was enormous: 3,500 dead, thousands deported. “Italy is proud of the path taken in these almost 80 years since the Liberation”.

He says: “In public opinion after September 8, 1943, there was also a ‘wait-and-see attitude’, the belief that it was better not to expose oneself to Nazi-Fascist reprisals and wait for the Allies to move up the peninsula. All this did not take into account the suffering inflicted on the population by the occupying forces, the abuses, the deportations. The Resistance fighters rose up, obeying Giuseppe Mazzini’s warning: ‘more than servitude, I fear the freedom brought as a gift’. Because the Resistance was not immobility”

Here then is a passionate speech on the morality of the Resistance, necessary in this time in which those in power are trying to rewrite history. He says, to begin with, that “the Resistance was not exclusively a support for the offensive of the allied troops”, as a certain reductive vulgate intends to ignore the role of the partisan movement, but it had an indispensable role “after the dark years of fascism”, to finally be “no longer subjects but citizens”. The partisan republics were also “laboratories of democracy”, in which women had a role, because for the first time they had the right to vote.

In short, our Constitution cannot be understood without the partisan struggle, and the good of democracy, of our being together, is born from the partisan struggle, which was much more than an armed resistance to the enemy. It was a civic and value-based training ground and laboratory.

Then stands out the praise of those who did not wallow in indifference, a deadly disease of the Italian character, honoring instead those who fought “Nazi-fascism openly”, because it was a battle for independence. The partisan Republic stimulated participation from below “after two decades of subordination and popular passivity after the belief, obey and fight” of the Ventennio.

In this discourse of truth, a passage on fascism with the Republic of Salò “accomplice of Nazi ferocity” cannot be missed, and a passage on the “patriots” infiltrated among the enemy.

In front of Mattarella there is also the partisan Paola Del Din, battle name Renata101 years old, who is keen to make a speech standing in front of the head of state. “I want to see him as long as possible, he leads a very tiring life, spending himself on a sewing job. He fights for our unity, Italy must remain united”.