Scalfarotto after Picierno's no to Russian Gergiev, in Caserta with EU funds: "Censorship is wrong"

The controversy continues in Campania over the performance of the Russian Valery Gergiev , a well-known orchestra conductor, who is due to perform at the Royal Palace of Caserta on July 27 with the Philharmonic of the Teatro Verdi of Salerno and the soloists of the Mariinsky Orchestra of St. Petersburg, as part of the 'A Summer for a King' festival. The Democratic vice-president of the European Parliament, Pina Picierno , raised the issue of the appropriateness of his performance. "It is unacceptable that European funds should finance the performance of a supporter of the Kremlin, Valery Gergiev," she protested on social media. "There are those who, after three and a half years of war, still have not understood that giving in to the Putin regime, even with these initiatives, represents a legitimization of its abject imperialism and is a huge problem - he continued -. In the meantime, my task and that of the EU institutions is to ask the director of the festival and the president of the Campania Region Vincenzo De Luca to intervene to modify the program and prevent taxpayers' money from ending up in the pockets of a supporter of a criminal regime".

The head of Foreign Affairs of Italia Viva, Ivan Scalfarotto , has a different opinion. "I read that my friend Pina Picerno has asked that Valery Giergev, a Russian conductor, be prevented from performing in Caserta because of his support for Vladimir Putin," he said. "As you know, I am totally on Ukraine's side and I think all the bad things possible about Putin and his regime, but I don't follow you on this, dear Pina," he added, addressing the Democratic representative. "If we think we can fight this battle by censoring art, culture and music, we risk dangerously resembling those we rightly want to fight."

Alfredo Antoniozzi, deputy group leader of Fratelli d'Italia in the Chamber, was sarcastic: "I find this inconceivable. Absurd. Gergiev is simply a great artist. If the Russians have to pay for the mistakes of their president then we are committing a sort of cultural genocide. The Honorable Picierno would probably ban Dostoevsky from coming to Italy today, if he were alive".