« Fascism in Italy was not born with large gatherings of thousands of people . It was born on the edge of an ordinary sidewalk, with the victim of a beating for political reasons who was left to herself by indifferent passers-by».
The letter from the principal of the Leonardo da Vinci high school, Annalisa Savino , addressed to her students after last Saturday's attack by young people from Student Action against students from the Michelangiolo classical high school in Florence has gone viral.
«Who extols the value of borders – continues Savino -. Those who honor the blood of their ancestors as opposed to the different ones, continuing to build walls, must be left alone , called by their name, fought against ideas and culture. Without deluding ourselves that this disgusting regurgitation will pass by itself. Many respectable Italians also thought so a hundred years ago but it didn't go like this ».
"A completely improper letter – commented the Minister of Education Giuseppe Valditara -. I was sorry to read it, it is not up to a principal to send messages of this type and the content has nothing to do with reality: in Italy there is no "there is no violent and authoritarian drift, there is no fascist danger, defending the borders has nothing to do with Nazism or Nazism. They are instrumental initiatives that express a politicization that I hope will no longer have a place in schools; if the attitude persists we will see if it will be necessary to take measures".
But there are also other circulars written by head teachers of the secondary schools of Florence to offer solidarity with those attacked .
The Pascoli high school, in a communication entitled "This school, the school, is always anti-fascist", reiterates that the "school promotes constructive dialogue and opposes all forms of violence , all physical and ideological aggression, all forms oppression that denies the democratic values born of the Resistance". The head teacher of the Galileo high school, Liliana Gilli, expresses "solidarity with the people involved in an episode that leaves you stunned and which creates deep regret as an act of gratuitous, useless and cowardly violence", while the head teacher of the Gramsci high school, Silvia Bertone, expresses "firmly dissent towards violence, in all its forms and in all its colors".
