The left has a natural talent for quantum physics applied to politics: they manage to live simultaneously in two parallel realities. For months we have witnessed a surreal spectacle following the attack on the host of Report Sigfrido Ranucci. A drama immediately transformed into the ultimate proof of a non-existent “authoritarian regime” led by Giorgia Meloni. This is because in the anti-government narrative, the bomb under the journalist’s house had to be the automatic result of a “climate of hatred” fueled by the right in power, or even the prime example of a “moral mandate” to target journalists considered inconvenient.
Then with the confession of Valter Lavitola and the meticulous work of the investigators, the house of cards of insinuations collapsed. Now it has emerged, of course, that the government had nothing to do with it, and, among other things, disturbing backstories are coming to light, including a phone call lasting two hours between the host of Report and Lavitola himself on the day of the search to agree on the version to provide.
But faced with a judicial truth that blatantly contradicts them, what does the left do? Instead of apologizing, they double down. With shameless brazenness, Ranucci posted on Facebook an intervention by the Democratic Information head Sandro Ruotolo with the following caption: “The government asks for my replacement, the PD reports to the EU Commission.”
Basically, the MEP announced that he had interacted with the European Commission Executive Vice-President Henna Virkkunen “to draw her attention to the repeated statements of the Deputy Prime Minister, Matteo Salvini” against the host of Report, “a historic investigative journalism program of the Italian public broadcasting service, and on the request made to Rai to suspend him from hosting the program. The issue – Ruotolo bureaucratically states – directly concerns the independence of the public service and the application of the European Media Freedom Act.” Salvini is guilty of having asked for Ranucci’s suspension from hosting the program at least until clarity is achieved in court.
Sharp was the response to the left from the FdI deputy Salvatore Deidda, who submitted a parliamentary question addressed to the Ministers of Economy and Enterprises, essentially to reverse the situation: “Yes, press freedom is under attack. There is only one small detail that the left omits to say: the ones trampling daily on the European Media Freedom Act are precisely the Report editorial staff, its host, and the Five Star Movement.”
The FdI MEP Carlo Fidanza, in an Instagram video, instead recalled a paradoxical aspect. Ruotolo, with the support of MEPs like Alessandro Zan and Alessandra Moretti, led the Democratic faction of government accusers, prompted by Secretary Elly Schlein who at the European Socialists Congress in Amsterdam said: “Freedom of speech is at risk when the far right is in government.” Ruotolo implied: “It is not an isolated case.” Zan agreed: “The attack shows that Italy has a problem with press freedom which is under attack.” Moretti was even more explicit: “When a journalist is turned into a public target, sooner or later someone will think they can strike even off-screen. And often it is politics that lights the fuse.” Right-wing politics, obviously. After all, it is the most consolidated communication strategy: the best defense is a good offense. So they appeal to the EU Commission to make everyone forget the ideological scaffolding they had built at the time.
It is not the government today riding the evidence of the Ranucci case, it is they who transformed it with the chalk still on the ground into a sounding board to put Italy in a bad light. Every now and then a bath of humility and truth would really do this left good, capable only of making propaganda on the skin of institutions and discrediting Italy abroad when their own lies are swept away by the facts.
