Roberto Saviano will be the guest of honor at the International Journalism Festival, organized by the Le Monde Group and L’Obs, which will be held from July 14 to 16 in Couthures-sur-Garonne (Lot-et-Garonne). Since the arrival in power in Rome of the government dominated by the national-conservatives of Giorgia Meloni, the Neapolitan writer has found himself at the center of several conflicts which oppose the right-wing majority to part of the world of Italian culture and intellectuals.
Still threatened with death by the Neapolitan Camorra, the author of Gomorrah, an investigation published in 2006 on the sprawling influence of organized crime in Campania which made him famous throughout the world, has been placed under police protection for sixteen years. For his progressive commitments in the public debate, he is also one of the favorite targets of the right in power, which he faces in particular before the courts.
Its presence in the back-to-school program schedules of an Italian public broadcaster, which is also being fully taken over by Ms. Meloni’s political allies, was announced on Friday July 7, creating some surprise, in particular because of the trial against it. since November to the chair of the board.
Roberto Saviano is indeed the subject of a complaint for defamation filed by Giorgia Meloni for comments made against him in 2020, when she was only a deputy, comments also targeting Matteo Salvini, then Minister of the Interior and now vice-president of the Council, always carrying a speech of radical hostility to migrants. The writer had called the two political leaders “bastards” on a television set after the broadcast of a report showing the death of a Guinean child, drowned in the sinking of a boat transporting migrants from one bank to the other from the Mediterranean.
Meanwhile, Giorgia Meloni came to power. However, she remains a civil party in this trial, the last hearing of which was held on June 28, the next being scheduled for October 12.
Another ongoing trial pits Roberto Saviano against Matteo Salvini, whom he called in 2018 “Minister of mala vità”, using an Italian term for delinquency and organized crime. Mr. Salvini, then Minister of the Interior, had suggested that the writer be deprived of his police escort. While the testimony of the current number two of the majority was expected at the last hearing held on June 1, he did not appear and the trial was postponed to December.
In May, Roberto Saviano emerged victorious in another court case pitting him against a right-wing figure now in government. It concerns statements made by the author in 2018, when he accused Gennaro Sangiuliano, a television journalist who has since become Minister of Culture, of having been the “factotum” of Nicola Consentino. This former Under-Secretary of State in the Berlusconi IV government, between 2008 and 2010, was condemned for his links with the Camorra and the writer reproached Mr. Sangiuliano for owing him his appointment to a position of responsibility within the Italian public broadcasting. The damages requested by the Minister were refused by the courts.
Designated opponent
Although relating to facts prior to the coming to power of the government of Giorgia Meloni, these cases which oppose Mr. Saviano to personalities belonging to the executive help to install him in a position of designated opponent. While pursuing his career as a writer – his latest book Crie le was published in France in January (Gallimard, 528 pages, 24 euros) – he regularly takes a stand in most social debates.
His statements thus give rise, outside the courtrooms, to controversies which punctuate from time to time the Italian public debate, the right-wing press titles delighting in making him the target of often outrageous attacks.
Recently, his criticisms of the Meloni government’s approach to the climate crisis following May’s deadly floods in Emilia-Romagna earned him the title of “The stupidologist” (La Stupidologo) in Libero’s front page, often provocative right-wing daily, which refers to him as the “guru of the left”.
The continuous conflict between Roberto Saviano and the Meloni government continues as the right in power intends to impose itself in cultural institutions and an intellectual milieu deemed to be committed to the ideas and networks of influence of the left. Rai, the public broadcaster, still subject in Italy to the influence of political parties, was the first significant battlefield. The arrival at the helm of the public body of Giampaolo Rossi, a former journalist, fervent and long-time supporter of Ms. Meloni, has worried the media and the world of culture, some going so far as to fear that he will act as the first step in an authoritarian takeover.
On May 20, in an interview with the progressive daily Domani, Saviano said that the government’s choices at the head of Rai were “the worst possible”. A week later, the writer took part in the latest edition of Rai’s successful talk show “Che Tempo Che Fa”, whose star host, Fabio Fazio, of left-wing sensibility, had caused a shock in announcing his decision to leave the chain following the reshuffle carried out at his head. For Roberto Saviano, the journalist was “chased out of Rai because the xenophobic right needs its space [on the air]”.
The author of Gomorrah, however, was given a weekly box on the Rai 3 channel, a channel historically anchored on the left of public broadcasting. From November, he will present the program “Insider – Faccia a faccia con il crimine”, which will be broadcast every Saturday and devoted to interviews with people who have experienced organized crime from the inside.
