In the early afternoon of December 12, 1969, a bomb exploded in the offices of Banca Nazionale dell’Agricultura in central Milan, killing 17 people and injuring 88. It had been operating in Italian universities and factories for months as part of the revolts that shook the world in the late 1960s. As will be known later, the reality was very different. There was a darkness behind this massacre. The intersection of geopolitical interests and neo-fascism trying to stop the massive growth of an Italian Communist Party that destabilized the Cold War.
In the hours after the attack, the political brigade of the Milan police commanded by the Commissioner Luigi Calabresiarrested a large number of militants, including. Giuseppe Pinelli, an anarchist worker with whom Calabresi has a trusting, almost affectionate relationship, who relies on numerous negotiations to organize demonstrations and meetings. on December 15 Pinelli died after falling from the window of Calabresi’s office during interrogations. The extra-parliamentary left press immediately blamed the commissioner and launched a campaign of harassment against him that lasted several years and won the support of numerous cultural and political figures. Nobel’s work Dario Fo, Accidental death of an anarchistinspired by this tragic story.
Finally, Calabresi was shot and killed outside his home in 1972 by militants from the radical organization Lotta Continua. It would be shown in court later that he wasn’t even in his office when Pinelli fell. The ordeal suffered by his family at that time and in the years after the murder, and the neglect suffered by the victims of the so-called ‘bullet years’, the political violence of the 70s and 80s for decades. with mario calabre (Milan, 1970), the commissioner’s eldest son, in the book get out of the night (Asteroid Books). Calabresi Jr. is a well-known journalist in his country who came to run the progressive newspaper, one of its main newspapers. Republicwhere he had to share pages for a while Adriano SofriThe leader of Lotta Continua has been imprisoned as the mastermind behind the murder of his father, an act in which three others were also convicted.
Where does this book come from: pain, reflection, the need for possession…?
I wrote this book 35 years after my father died. [se publicó en Italia en 2017] and almost 20 years have passed since the end of terrorism in my country. And I wrote because the victims were completely forgotten. They were only talking about politics after the terror, how ex-terrorists would integrate into society, whether they could enter politics, write a book, or appear on television… But nobody talked about the dead or their relatives. Terrorism in Italy claimed about 500 deaths. And these dead are completely forgotten. There was a lot of talk about turning that page of history. I agreed with it, but I said to myself: we can only turn the page when we are called by our real name, when there is truth and justice. My role was to remember the damage done by terrorism. I’ll add one more thing: When I went to a bookstore, all the books in the “terror” or “bullet years” section were either political or military history, or were about ex-terrorists. I thought: if a 20-year-old boy wants to know what happened in Italy in the 70s and 80s, he only reads what ex-terrorists wrote. It just can’t be. So I said to myself: It’s important to have another voice in the debate.
Was writing therapeutic?
I cried a lot while writing it. It was a boring book. But it’s been very therapeutic. It helped me. And I’ll tell you something I’ve never told you: I wrote this book just before my twin daughters were born. And because I was able to come to terms with my father’s story with the book, it helped me become a father. I think it is therapeutic not only for me but also for Italian society. In Italy, this book sold half a million copies. And it completely changed the public debate. After this book, the Assembly took action, and the President decided to invite the victims of terrorism every year…
Wasn’t it like this before?
Previously, every year, for example, on the anniversary of the murder of Aldo Moro, the most famous terrorist murdered, the terrorists who kidnapped him were always interviewed on television. In the book, I wrote: It is not possible to interview terrorists every year. Why don’t you ever interview any of your widowed daughters? And be careful: I’m not one to say, “We have to cancel the terrorists and they can’t talk.” The thing is, they can’t talk alone. And now the voices of the victims are heard on those anniversaries in Italy.
Is loneliness the basic feeling of a terror victim or a relative?
Definitely. A feeling of complete oblivion.
Did you feel alone?
We thought this was a private, personal issue. That no one cares about us. So that it can be understood how the state forgot about us for so long: Something like the 2004 victims of terrorism law was made. More than 30 years have passed since my father’s death.
I’m not someone who says ‘let’s cancel the terrorists, they can’t talk’. The problem is they can’t talk alone”
This is the “discretionary power” that President Giorgio Napolitano describes in the book.
Common sense is required, yes. You may be a former terrorist, but you can never be a former assassin. If you stop participating in the armed struggle, you are no longer a terrorist and it is not fair to call you a terrorist. TRUE. But the person you killed is gone, so you will be a murderer for the rest of your life.
Her mother is a very important character in this book. His peace, his determination not to live with hatred, and above all you, his children, do not feel it.
My mother raised us by saying that we shouldn’t always look back and live with anger and resentment, that we should look ahead and think positively about life. He also told us: Since your father was killed, you should not think that society is bad. You have to trust people. If you look at society negatively, your life will be a disaster.
And have you come to forgive?
My mother went on a different journey. It is also a religious journey. Fundamental to him was the idea of forgiveness. I took a more mundane path. I was more interested in understanding and finding peace than forgiveness.
Five years ago, I went to Paris to find the man who organized my father’s murder. […] I learned that he was very sick and I thought he didn’t have much to live. So I tracked him down, wrote to him and said I wanted to see him.”
Have you ever come face-to-face with any of the people involved in your father’s murder?
Yes, during the first trials. Then, five years ago, I went to Paris to find the man who organized my father’s murder. This man, Giorgio Pietrostefani, is almost 80 today and fled to France to avoid going to jail during the trial. I learned that he was very sick and I thought he didn’t have much to live. So I tracked him down, wrote to him and said I wanted to see him. And we met one morning lobby great hotel. We talked for half an hour. I saw a different man than I remembered. A very old, tired man. As we sat down he asked me: “Am I talking to the journalist or to Luigi Calabresi’s son?” So I told him “talk to his son”. In fact, I never wrote down or told what we talked about. I asked him all the questions I needed to ask him and he gave me all the answers. It was very important to me, and also to my mother and siblings. He was kind of like a ghost to us, and instead he stepped in to tell me what he knew, everything that was important to me.
How did it make you feel?
I felt like I could turn the page.
Did intellectuals like Sofri do the necessary self-criticism or not?
Many did, but Sofri did not. Sofri has never made a real, deep self-criticism. He is still a prisoner of his character. He was the leader of the organization and if he had made a real self-criticism, he would have had to question the organization he founded and he could not take this last step.
Is there any doubt today that the four detainees are actually the culprits of the murder?
To be honest, no one in Italian society except Sofri has any doubts. Because over time, those who defended him and said “no, it wasn’t”, have adopted silence today. And when I meet someone by chance, as happened to me with a former terrorist from the Red Brigades, they say to you in a low voice: “Yes, of course it was them, we all knew.” But they don’t want to say it openly.
Did any of them apologize or give you an explanation?
yes two quarters [no quiere decir cuáles]
Is the whole truth of what happened in the “lead years” already known, or are there areas of shadow?
The overall picture is clear. We know what it is. But as in the old Byzantine churches, with those mosaics with lots of small fragments: if you look at it from afar, the design is very clear. If you get too close, you’ll find that many pieces are missing. Some parts of the truth in Italy are missing. For example, in my father’s case: we know who was driving the car, who fired, who was the leader of the organization and who organized the murder. But then we just think we know, because he was never convicted, who went after my father the day before, who took the gun, who accompanied the murderer to the police station… Who are they? Did they become famous journalists, politicians, university professors…? I know this. I ran into one of them in the elevator one day. A famous journalist. I know this person was following my father on a motorcycle in the days before the murder. In the elevator, that person extended his hand to me. You know why I hid my hand. No court said, but you know. He bowed his head, I said.
Being in the Meloni government, originating from MSI [neofascistas que participaron en la estrategia de la tensión]Does it represent a return to that dark time of lead years?
No. I have no political respect for Giorgia Meloni. I do not share your ideas. But we cannot think that the massacres perpetrated by the far right have anything to do with fascism. Just as I refused to refer to Massimo D’Alema, the first Italian prime minister from the Communist Party, as being “linked to communism in government and left-wing terrorism” by the right. But I think Meloni has a problem with being accountable to fascism and the history of neo-fascism in Italy.