The Turin chapter of the ruling
anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S) on Tuesday called on
the Turin Book fair to bar neoFascist publisher Altaforte from
the event amid a boycott by anti-Fascists.
"The Fair must be the space where we celebrate tolerance and
resistance to neoFascist and authoritarian drifts, the public
moment where we can wage war with the force of words and
arguments," the M5S chapter said.
"But is can be this on one condition only: the exclusion of
Altaforte and (its chief Francesco) Polacchi".
"Any intermediate way, any compromise would mark for the Fair
a loss on the cultural level that we cannot accept," said M5S
Turin council whip Valentina Sganga.
There has been a flurry of anti-Fascist and leftwing
defections from the fair in protest at the presence of a the
'nationalist-populist' publisher, whose owner Polacchi
unapologetically called himself a Fascist Monday.
After the resignation of writer and teacher Christian Raimo
from his post of publishing consultant to the fair, writers'
collective Wu Ming and essayist Carlo Ginzburg also said they
would not be attending this year's event.
They were followed by cartoonist Zerocalcare.
Left-leaning writers and publishers are uneasy at the
presence of 'sovereigntist' publisher Altaforte, considered
close to neoFascist group CasaPound.
Altaforte director Polacchi told ANSA Monday: "I'm a
Fascist. Antifascism is the real ill of this country".
"We were ready for polemics, but not this surreal level of
spite. There are even some people on social media saying they're
coming to Turin to throw molotov cocktails at us.
"We'll be there because by now it's a question of principle".
Interior Minister Matteo Salvini has courted controversy
by choosing Altaforte as the publisher of a book of his
interviews, I Am Matteo Salvini.
The fair runs from May 9 to May 13.
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