Maroni at Insubria University: “I wanted to be a journalist”

“I wanted to be a journalist, but then Bossi framed me: “If you come with me, I’ll start up a newspaper that is all yours”. This is just one of the anecdotes that was told on the stage of Insubria University for one day, Roberto Maroni, has told this afternoon.

The “Lega Nord” Member has been invited, as a speaker, at the first lesson of the course “Theories and Techniques of  Language”, held by Gianni Spartà, historical writer of the newspaper La Prealpina.

“Why have I invited Bobo? Because he has been a journalist, because he is an active and passive person in communication, besides being a great expert of music: communication instrument par excellence”, the reporter has explained.

Maroni really tried to become a journalist; in the slides he has showed to students also “Nord Ovest” appeared, the firs “Lega Nord” newspaper, founded in 1980. But the experience he has talked about with most enthusiasm has been that of Radio Varese, the “three monkeys” radio “born in the extremely left-wing area of Varese”, as the former Minister has remembered. At that time, he held two transmissions: “L’Altroieri” which dealt with local dialects and traditions, with interviews to “old women speaking lombard dialect”, and “La lanterna magica” during which he read the episodes of “Il Diario del Che in Bolivia”.

“I don’t want to play the teacher, but only speak about my experience in political communication¨ he added. “In this field, communication is not so different from that of advertising: in this case, the product to sell is the political project of the party. The message has to be spontaneous and immediate, that’s the only way it can spread. Compared to marketing, there is the difference that you really must believe in what you do, you have to be conscious that politics is no laughing matter”.

Since its birth, the Lega has understood how to obtain “great headings” on newspapers and to spread its battles. This, thanks also to those that Maroni has defined the “fundamental tools of the trade. Symbols, meetings, gadgets and most of all walls”. During this afternoon lesson, Maroni also has spoken about the “Barbari Sognanti” and of the excitement he felts during last January meeting at Apollonio theatre. “The Lega has been criticised since the very beginning¨ the ex Minister concluded. ¨They have defined us xenophobes as, in some cases, we sent very explicit and sometimes very strong messages. But this let us have consent and, I don’t deny it, we took advantage from it somehow. But saying that we are racists is a prejudice from which we won’t free ourselves so easily”.