Vittorio Feltri clarifies: “I have been misunderstood, those who define me as anti-southern neglect my story and my work”

“I have never had feelings of racism. I couldn’t have been because I grew up in Molise “: this is Vittorio Feltri’s answer to the accusations of the last few days

The words of Vittorio Feltri. The journalist in an editorial published on Liberoquotidiano.it, responds to the letter from Calabrian Giovanni Nostro, who as a citizen of Southern Italy invited the director to apologize for his statements. Here is Felt’s answer:

“Dear Giovanni Nostro, I thank you for the polite letter sent to me. However, I do not agree with each of your arguments, since I said on TV, a guest of Mario Giordano (Out of the chorus), that the southerners are lower than the northerners, I was not referring at all to their moral and intellectual qualities, but to the economic factor, clearly disadvantageous compared to the North.

Obviously, the difference in income between the two areas of the country causes problems that are easy to ascertain and difficult to solve. Basically, my misunderstood statements related to portfolios and certainly not to brains, therefore nothing anthropological and all financial. Even the slowest of the polentoni is aware that Benedetto Croce, Giovanni Verga, Gabriele D’Annunzio, Corrado Alvaro and Leonardo Sciascia (I mention the first names that come to me) were not turnip heads, but rather excellent personalities expressed not by the Brembana Valley, rather from the glorious South. The fact is that the per capita income of Campania amounts to 19 thousand euros (ISTAT), while that of Lombardy is double, 37 thousand euros. Do I have to pretend to ignore these data and proclaim that there are more resources in Naples than in Milan?

Reality is never offensive or deceptive, so I do not understand the reason that induces so many people to take it out on me, accusing me of all wickedness, only because I have limited myself to underlining the truth. My externalization was therefore not unhappy, if anything badly interpreted by those who do not reflect on what they listen and what they read. Many mistakes have been made here in the north, but the deaths recorded in the last two months in these parts were not caused by carelessness in the health and administrative systems, but by the virus that took anyone by surprise, including virologists, many of whom they know less than nurses, also because they mostly attend television studies in scientific laboratories. You, Giovanni, love your people, as I love mine, although you often criticize them for appearing to me in certain somewhat obtuse circumstances. It is not enough to be born in Milan or Naples to be a man of care. The category of fools is universal and develops at all latitudes, although sometimes there are jerks more jerks than others. Giving me the antimeridionale means neglecting my story and my work.

The various newspapers that I have directed in my path have always been stuffed with brilliant terroni (joking synonym) that have helped me in the businesses I started. I have never had feelings of racism. I couldn’t have done it because, however, I grew up in Molise, Terra del Sacramento (read Francesco Jovine), or Guardialfiera (province of Campobasso), where I spent the happiest years of my existence. And now I reveal a piece of news that I have always kept silent for confidentiality.

Recently, a friend of mine from that delightful village informed me that the oldest bell in the world has failed and needs restoration. Too bad that the guards, certainly not rich, did not have the 15 thousand euros necessary to restore it. Inspired by a sense of gratitude for my fellow villagers, I sent the parish priest a transfer equal to the aforementioned figure. They promised me honorary citizenship, but I refused it. Molise and Molise are in my heart and I am interested in their affection, not gratitude. When you accuse me of anti-southern nationalism, I don’t get angry, I feel sorry for you. You disown everything about me and if I declare that in Bassitalia there is less money than in Lombardy you insult me. Shame on you. I cannot ask venia for what I have said nor do I care to receive an apology because those who are right have nothing to fear. The unbelievers phone the parish priest of Guardialfiera and check if I have lied. “