In an interview which appeared this morning on local Web information portal il Fatto Bresciano, former Mayor of Brescia and Senator Paolo Corsini (PD) said he opposes plans to restore the 24-ft high “Fascist Era” statue to the central Piazza della Vittoria in Brescia.
Paolo Corsini, who has been Mayor of the City on three terms for a total of 12 years (1992-1994, 1998-2003, and 2003-2008,) was recently elected to the Italian Senate for the Italian Democratic Party (PD).
In today’s interview, Senator Corsini denied allegations by members of the centre-right majority governing the Comune that the idea to see the statue back to where the Fascist regime originally erected it was originally his own.
“As far as my role is concerned, I simply expressed my opinion in the historical-cultural debate that was sparked at the time, saying that I deemed legitimate to consider this issue [replacement of the Bigio statue]. That is, I did not consider this an issue that could not be raised.”
The road the Paroli administration decided to take was to “give the green light to the replacement of the Bigio without any project, plan, or perspective. This allows us to think that the real intentions are […] a revisionist excercise, under a political and historical point of view, dictated by nostalgia. Hiding behind the mask of a philological effort to restore the square to its original identity, this administration wants to make a point of imposing choices that are in stark contrast to those which were taken from the immediate post-war years up to the present. This is my position.”
Commenting on the arguments put forward by the ANPI against the “Fascist Era” statue, Sen. Corsini said he tended to consider these to be also too “ideologically” charged. However, he added, “the arguments the ANPI is using are real, albeit scarcely effective”. “I understand the ANPI’s point of view, and I indeed share it, but I believe that other points of view should be taken into consideration if we want to make them more effective.”
The original article can be accessed here.
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Brescia says No to a 24-ft high fascist statue towering over its central Piazza della Vittoria
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Italian Democratic Party (#PD) in #Brescia reviews cost of #Fascist statue to a staggering 460,000 €
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“The Bigio controversy ends up on Twitter”, Corriere della Sera, 13th March 2013
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Brescia’s “Fascist Era” controversy on Radio Popolare. Interview with president of ANPI Brescia Giulio Ghidotti, 22nd March 2013
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Rally / flash mob against “Fascist Era” statue on National TV network RAI, 23rd March
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Concerns expressed on Brescia’s “Fascist Era” statue by president of the Shoah Museum Rome
- Brescia’s Fascist Era statue on the Guardian, Saturday 6th April 2013