The fluctuating moods of the founder of the newspaper Repubblica, Eugenio Scalfari, after the torpedoing of Verdelli and the appointment of Molinari by Elkann
He may have been “furious”, as represented on the front page of the Fatto Quotidiano, naturally very interested in taking advantage of a crisis in the newspaper La Repubblica, but Eugenio Scalfari reacted with great prudence and with an openness, albeit threatening, of trust in the new course of the newspaper he founded in 1976. He confided to readers, in the usual Sunday appointment, that he had already had a confrontation, let’s say, with the director Maurizio Molinari, who had just taken over from the dear Carlo Verdelli at the behest of the publisher John Elkann, the nephew and heir of Gianni Agnelli, and to have practically taken up the promise that the Republic will continue to move in the wake of the “liberal-socialism” claimed by Scalfari himself.Which evidently must have forgotten – at the beautiful age of 96 – that protest raised in 1978 against the socialist secretary Bettino Craxi for allowing himself to “cut Marx’s beard” with the scissors provided by Luciano Pellicani, the author of the ” Socialist Gospel ”entrusted to Espresso.
A declared lover of “fairy tales” as in the years of his childhood, Scalfari assured his readers that as a “founder” he will watch over the new course of his newspaper, ready – if he is faced with another subject or object – to warn them first and “Draw the consequences personally and collectively, if possible”.
On the other hand, perhaps giving a displeasure to the aforementioned newspaper by Marco Travaglio, which would not seem true if a new space were created on the left to be covered with youthful rapacity, Carlo De Benedetti has already warned with an interview with the Foglio that he is ready with the his 85 years on his shoulders, and the large amount of money he still has even after having donated a lot to the children who have disappointed him, to build a kind of Repubblica 2: a bit like Milan 2 but also 3 of its ancient and irreducible competitor or opponent Silvio Berlusconi. With which he tried at a certain point to carry out some business together, held back by force precisely by the protests of Scalfari and the Republic of which he had taken ownership by pouring – he would later reveal in Lilli Gruber’s television living room – a “packet” of money to the founder.
Since liberal-socialism is a formula that can lend itself to many interpretations, as demonstrated precisely by the defense of Marx’s beard in 1978, when Craxi challenged Enrico Berlinguer’s communists on the ideological and practical ground, Scalfari also embodied it in his encounter with Molinari the current Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte. Which, coincidentally, the new director hastened to interview in person, returning from a visit to the Fosse Ardeatine.
The “founder” of Conte sang the praises forgetting the designation grillina, not exactly the best of liberal-socialism, and perhaps shared the smell for a “flower”, like that of “his” Republic, which “does not wither”, at least up to “100 years”. Which are not those of Scalfari himself, now close, but of the newspaper, which has “only” 44: all shaken off the person concerned by re-proposing the emblematic photo of the birth of the Republic in the typography, when Scalfari was only 52 years old and was the press proofs, surrounded by a team as ambitious as he is.
The flower in these days in which Bella ciao is joyfully sung, which also evokes it for the partisan’s tomb, will certainly not make Scalfari the ugly joke of withering prematurely. Best wishes, Don Eugenio, as Scalfari would have called in the days of Benedetto Croce.
