Furio Colombo-Padellaro-Staino: “Unity could and should have been saved”

The indictment note signed by the cdr of the historic newspaper “L’Unità” has awakened attention to the present and, hopefully, to the future of a newspaper that has contributed to writing the history of politics, culture and journalism in our Village. And together with solidarity for workers and their prospects, it raised the protests and accusations of former directors and historical signatures, such as Furio Colombo, Antonio Padellaro and Sergio Staino, interviewed by AdnKronos. “An indecent and unworthy behavior in the history of a newspaper that has always defended the rights of workers”. This is how Furio Colombo describes the inaction of the publisher of the newspaper ‘l’Unità’, of which he was director. “We are faced with an unfair, wrong, negative move towards those who remained hanging on what was the great organizational, editorial and even entrepreneurial structure of the Unity: an obtuse ignorance of reality and history, politics and journalistic, of our country “, Colombo recalls” the gusts of enthusiasm, full of life, even in the small countryside towns: the newspaper was deeply tied to the soul of so many people who had their point of reference in it. when, first under the direction of Walter Veltroni and then with mine, L’Unità became a ‘liberal’ newspaper from a communist organ, that link remained intact, as evidenced by the high number of copies sold in that period and the passion unaltered for the Feste dell’Unità. He was alive and continued to keep clearly visible the thread of a link between a party and its people “, underlines Furio Colombo. Solidarity towards the editorial body but also” discomfort in the face of difference “that is accompanying the story of L’Unità, by Antonio Padellaro, co-director of the newspaper with Furio Colombo from 2000 to 2005 and until 2008 director of the newspaper, who expresses in these terms his position on the crisis of the newspaper denounced by the editorial staff in the hope that someone “has the opportunity to intervene”. Crisis characterized, write the journalists, by the presence “of a company that has practically always been silent, which has held journalists and polygraphers in ‘hostage’, confining them to a hellish circle, suspended in thin air, from 1 January 2022 without any social protection anymore” . “In the meantime – says Padellaro – obviously the warmest solidarity with colleagues who live in a hallucinating situation not from today. Unfortunately, I can limit myself to this as I no longer have a say in the management of the Unit, in the management”. The question, however, according to the journalist, is “how do you disperse the assets of one of the most important newspapers not on an Italian level but on an international level? ‘L’Unità’ is a newspaper known all over the world, a glorious newspaper . It was not only the organ of the Italian Communist Party, it was also a beacon of freedom of information “. For these reasons Padellaro expresses “the strong discomfort in the face of indifference for how this story is ending, also hoping that there is someone who has the opportunity to intervene and save the newspaper”. “Whoever was party secretary at the time, should have thought about it … the publishers are only merchants to whom they had promised a series of earnings that were then not respected; but the responsibility lies with those who gave the head of the Unit to those merchants, who rightly try to serve their interests; and his name is Renzi “. This is the accusation launched by Sergio Staino, the historic satirical ‘pencil’ of Unity, on the latest events in the newspaper, denounced in a harsh statement from the CDR. It is also true that none of the party newspapers actually survived … “True, but this demonstrates the average level of the Italian political class, including that of the left – adds Staino – With a fair amount of intelligence, many things could have been avoided or at least keep it under control: now the consequences are being paid “. Staino emphasizes:” L’Unità was a national newspaper, which made an opinion and was among the best-selling and most loved. I had the feeling that we would go to ending badly, when the new director D’Alema arrived who in the first meeting on the future of the newspaper said that we should also ask ourselves whether or not the party actually needed a newspaper like Unità: it was an anticipated requiem … ” .Staino remembers his years at the Unity as “wonderful, starting with the meeting with a fantastic director, one of the best people I have known in my life, that is Emanuele Macaluso. If I have corrected many mistakes of the past, if I have understood many things in life and especially if today I have a political interpretation of reality I owe it to people like him. But the newspaper also went well with the directions of Walter Veltroni and then of Furio Colombo and up to that of Concita De Gregorio which brought a new audience of readers. If there had been an intelligent party behind it, aware of the role of the left in the world and therefore interested in the fate of Unity, it would not have ended in this bad way “. (By Enzo Bonaiuto)