Indro Montanelli: Difference between revisions

Indro Montanelli was born in Fucecchio, near Florence, on April 22, 1909. His father, Sestilio Montanelli, was a high-school philosophy teacher and his mother, Maddalena Doddoli, the daughter of a rich cotton merchant. The name "Indro" was chosen by his father after the Hindu god Indra.^[8]

Montanelli obtained a Law degree from the University of Florence in 1930, with a thesis on the electoral reform of

Montanelli began his journalistic career by writing for the fascist newspaper Il Selvaggio ("The Savage"), then directed by Mino Maccari, and in 1932 for the Universale, a magazine published only once fortnightly and which offered no pay. Montanelli admitted that in those days he saw in fascism the hope of a movement that could potentially create an Italian national conscience that would have resolved the economic and socioeconomic differences between the north and the south. This enthusiasm for the fascist movement began to wane when in 1935 Mussolini forced the abolition of the Universale along with other magazines and newspapers that expressed opinions on the nature of fascism.

But it was in 1934, in Paris that Montanelli began to write for the crime pages of the daily newspaper

When Mussolini invaded

Montanelli began writing about the war to his father who – without Montanelli's knowledge – sent the letters to one of the most famous journalists of those times, Ugo Ojetti, who published them regularly on the most prestigious Italian newspaper: Il Corriere della Sera.

Reporter during the Spanish Civil War

On his return from Abyssinia, Montanelli became foreign correspondent in Spain for the daily newspaper Il Messaggero, where he experienced the

The position taken against fascism led him to first serious disagreements. He was taken off the ticket of the Party and he did nothing to get it back. So to avoid the worst, in 1938, the then minister of culture, Giuseppe Bottai, offered Montanelli the job of director of the Institute of Culture in Tallinn, Estonia, and lecturer in Italian at the University of Tartu. In this period the then director of the Corriere della Sera, Aldo Borelli, asked Montanelli to engage in a 'collaboration' as foreign correspondent (he could not be employed as journalist, because this had been forbidden by the fascist regime). Montanelli began to correspond for this newspaper from Estonia and Albania (during the Italian annexation of this country).

On 1 September 1939 Germany

Montanelli was not welcome in Italy, and decided to move to Lithuania. The joint German-Russian invasion of Poland instinctively told him that more was brewing on the Soviet Union border. His instinct was correct because shortly after his arrival in Kaunas – the seat of Lithuanian government – the Soviet Union declared an Ultimatum to the Baltic Republics. At this point Montanelli continued to travel towards Tallinn as it was his wish to see the last of a free and democratic Estonia, which was soon invaded by Soviet Union. At this point, Montanelli was not popular in Italy, nor Germany because of his pro-Estonian and pro-Polish articles and had been expelled by the Soviet Union for being a foreigner. So he was forced by the events to cross the Baltic sea and reach Helsinki.

In Finland Montanelli began writing articles about the Lapps and the reindeer, although this was not for long as Molotov had made requests on the Finnish government for the annexation of part of the Finnish land to the Soviet Union. The Finnish delegation, headed by Paasikivi, had refused to give in to these requests and on their return it was clear that war was in the air. Montanelli was not able to write about the details of the talks between the Soviet and Finnish delegations, as they were shrouded in strict secrecy, although he was able to interview Paasikivi, who was happy to fill him in on everything except for the content of the talks.

Throughout the so-called

Invasion of Norway

Before his return to Italy Montanelli witnessed the invasion of Norway, and was arrested by the German army for his hostility towards the German-Italian alliance. He escaped with the help of his friend Vidkun Quisling, and made a run for the north of the country where the English and the French were disembarking their troops at Narvik. He was met by the one-eyed, one-armed Major Carton de Wiart who explained that there were no more than 10,000 Allied troops in Norway – many of them not even trained for battle. Nobody seemed to know where their garrison was. The British wanted to go inland and attack the Germans, but the French wanted to stay put and consolidate their positions. After having seen the clockwork invasion of Poland by the German troops, this disarray was a worrying sight. When the Germans began bombing these positions the Allies were forced to embark once again and beat a hasty withdrawal to England.

The Balkans and Greece

With Italy's entrance in the war (June 1940), Montanelli was sent to France and the Balkans; then he was assigned the responsibility of following the Italian military campaign from Greece and Albania as correspondent. Here he recounted to have written little:

I remained at that front various months, writing almost nothing, a small reason was because I fell ill with typhus and a huge one because I refused to push as a glorious military campaign the quaking pummeling that we caught down there.^[13]

An article published on 12 September 1940 issue of Panorama was considered "defeatist" by the censors of Minculpop (Ministero della Cultura Popolare), who in turn ordered the closure of the periodical.

Arrested and sentenced to death

After witnessing war and destruction in the Balkans, and the disastrous

He was eventually once again captured by the Germans, tried and sentenced to death. In the Milanese prison of San Vittore he met Mike Bongiorno, who would later become one of the most famous Italian television personalities. In prison he also made the acquaintance of General Della Rovere, who was said to have been arrested while on a secret mission on behalf of the Allies. In fact, this man was a thief called Giovanni Bertoni, a spy for the Germans. But Bertoni was so taken in by the military character he was playing that he refused to relay any information to his German captors and was executed like a real enemy official. After the war Montanelli dedicated a book to this incident (Il generale Della Rovere, 1959, later turned into the award-winning movie General Della Rovere directed by Roberto Rossellini and starring Vittorio De Sica).

Salvation came at the end of 1944 with the help of unknown conspirators who arranged for his transfer to a prison in Verona. The transfer was then transformed into a dash for the Swiss border. The identity of these conspirators remained a mystery until decades later, when it appeared that it had been the result of collusion by several agencies. Among them, Marshall Mannerheim allegedly put pressure on his German allies ("You are executing a gentleman" he said to von Falkenhorst, the commander of the German troops stationed in Finland) resulting in Berlin's opening of an inquiry.

In 1945 while hiding in Switzerland, he published the novel Drei Kreuze (Three Crosses), later appeared in Italian with the title Qui non-riposano (Here they do not rest). Inspired by Thornton Wilder's The Bridge of San Luis Rey, the story begins on 17 September 1944 when a Val d'Ossola priest buries three unknown corpses and commemorates them with three anonymous crosses.

Career after the second world war

Throughout the post-war years, Montanelli retained an idiosyncratic and particularly undiplomatic style, even when this made him very unpopular among his peers and employers. This is well illustrated in his book La stecca nel coro (which translates as "The false note in the chorus" with the meaning of "Going against the current") which is a list of leading articles he composed between 1974 and 1994.

After the war, Montanelli resumed his career at

, declaring: "A director is not sent away like a thieving domestic" and, turning to the Crespi family, he branded their "authoritarian, bullying junta ways that they have chosen in order to impose their decision".

After breaking with Corriere della Sera he founded and directed a new conservative daily, Il Giornale, from 1973 to 1994, together with Enzo Bettiza.

On 2 September 1977, Montanelli was shot four times in the legs by a two-man commando of the

kneecapped

").

Quarrel with Berlusconi and final years

When Silvio Berlusconi, from 1977 the majority shareholder of Il Giornale, entered politics with the founding of a new populist political party, Forza Italia, Montanelli came under heavy pressure to switch his editorial line to a position favourable to Berlusconi. Montanelli never hid his bad opinion of Berlusconi: "He lies as he breathes", the journalist declared. In the end, protesting his independence, he founded a new daily, for which he resurrected the name La Voce ("The Voice"), which had belonged to an historical newspaper run by Giuseppe Prezzolini. La Voce, always an elitist paper, folded after about a year, and Montanelli returned to Corriere della Sera. In 1994, Montanelli was awarded the International Editor of the Year Award from the World Press Review.

From 1995 to 2001 he was the chief letters editor of Corriere della Sera, answering a letter a day on a page of the newspaper known as "La Stanza di Montanelli" ("Montanelli's Room"). Montanelli spent his last years vigorously opposing Silvio Berlusconi's politics. He was mentor to a significant group of colleagues, followers and students including Mario Cervi, Marco Travaglio, Paolo Mieli, Roberto Ridolfi, Andrea Claudio Galluzzo, Beppe Severgnini and Roberto Gervaso.

He died on 22 July 2001 at the La Madonnina clinic in Milan. The following day, Corriere della Sera published a letter on its front page: "Indro Montanelli's farewell to his readers".

Awards and decorations

Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic – awarded on 15 December 1995[14]

Commander, First Class, of the Order of the Lion of Finland

Controversies

In June 2020, a statue of Indro Montanelli in Milan was vandalised by activists, in the context of the Black Lives Matter movement. It was painted red and tagged with the words "racist, rapist".^[15][16][17] This was done to highlight what protesters considered a forgotten chapter of Montanelli's past, and voice anger that a statue was erected to him in light of this after his death in 2001. At the age of 26 year old, when he was in Italian Ethiopia (former Abyssinia), he bought a 12 year old female child, that he married and in different interviews he called her 'a small animal'. While working as a journalist for the fascist magazine "Civiltà Fascista", he argued that soldiers should under no circumstances fraternise with blacks, at least "until they had been given a culture".^[18][19] Montanelli later freely acknowledged having had a sexual relationship with a 12 year old child whilst he was stationed in Abyssinia, a practice condemned by Mussolini's fascist regime. In a talk show interview in 1969, Montanelli told the reporter of his child-bride, “I think I chose well. She was a beautiful girl of 12 years,” adding: “I'm sorry. But in Africa it was different.” Milan's mayor, Giuseppe Sala, refused to remove the statue, arguing that "lives should be judged in their totality", while recognising his dismay at "the lightness" at the way Montanelli had spoken about his actions in Abyssinia. ^[20]

In 1972, during the television program L'ora della verità by Gianni Bisiach, Indro Montanelli again spoke of his experience in Abyssinia during which he " married" a 12-year-old girl called Destà. The practice of the madamato (the marriage referred to by Montanelli in the interview) was common place, a more uxorio temporary relationship of Italian citizens with local women, often girls between 8 and 12 years old, in the then Italian colonies. Montanelli free acknowledged his actions, fondly recalling how "my non-commissioned officer bought her for me, along with a horse and a rifle, 500 lire in all. [...]. She was like a docile animal...". Montanelli detailed how "I needed a woman at that age... I struggled a lot to overcome her smell, due to the goat tallow with which her hair was soaked". He then went on to complain how he struggled "even more to accomplish a sexual relationship with her because she was

infibulated since birth: which, in addition to opposing my desires with an almost insurmountable barrier (it needed the brutal intervention of her mother to demolish it), made her completely insensitive".^[21]

During the interview, his account was interrupted by a question from a woman present in the studio, the feminist, writer and journalist Elvira Banotti, who asked him how he could justify his marriage to a child, since marriage in Europe to a 12-year-old girl is considered abhorrent, rape and violence. Montanelli replied that "in Abyssinia it works like this".^[22] The discussion between the two journalists continued until the broadcast ended.^[23]

References

1. ^ Daniele Abbiati (6 February 2010). "La Treccani riparte ma scivola su "Cilindro" Montanelli". il Giornale.
2. ^ "World Press Freedom Heroes: Symbols of courage in global journalism". International Press Institute. 2012. Archived from the original on 16 January 2012. Retrieved 26 January 2012.
3. ISBN 9781105520082
   .
4. ^ "Indro Montanelli: Statue of controversial journalist defaced in Milan". BBC News.
5. ISBN 9788868656218
   .
6. ^ Lame, John Francis (24 July 2001). "Obituary: Indro Montanelli. Veteran Italian journalist who cast a caustically critical eye on politics and society for more than 60 years". The Guardian. Retrieved 17 June 2020.
7. ISBN 1844675416
   .
8. Enciclopedia Treccani
   . Retrieved 17 June 2020.
9. ^ "Montanelli, Indro". 2017. Retrieved 4 September 2017.
10. ^ "Indro Montanelli (1909–)". 2017. Retrieved 4 September 2017.
11. ^ Teggi, Annalisa (16 August 2018). ""Did you, Mr. Montanelli, rape a 12-year-old girl?" asked Elvira Banotti". Aleteia. Retrieved 15 June 2020.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
12. ^ "Statue of famous Italian journalist defaced in Milan". Al Jazeera. 15 June 2020. Retrieved 15 June 2020.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
13. ^ Abate, Tiziana; Montanelli, Indro, Soltanto un giornalista [Only a Journalist].
14. ^ "Presidential Awards". Quirinal Palace. Retrieved 14 September 2013.
15. ^ "Statue of famous Italian journalist defaced in Milan". Al Jazeera. 14 June 2020. Retrieved 15 June 2020.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
16. ^ "Indro Montanelli: Statue of controversial journalist defaced in Milan". BBC News. 14 June 2020. Retrieved 15 June 2020.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
17. ^ "Milan mayor refuses to remove defaced statue of Italian journalist". The Guardian. 14 June 2020. Retrieved 15 June 2020.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
18. ^ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_2xZWu_Ak8. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
19. ^ . Redazione Bufale.net https://www.bufale.net/precisazioni-indro-montanelli-e-lacquisto-di-una-moglie-12enne-in-abissinia-era-un-bel-animalino/. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
20. ^ "Milan mayor refuses to remove defaced statue of Italian journalist". The Guardian. 14 June 2020. Retrieved 15 June 2020.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
21. ISBN 978-88-565-0213-8
    .
22. ^ Teggi, Annalisa (16 August 2018). ""Did you, Mr. Montanelli, rape a 12-year-old girl?" asked Elvira Banotti". Aleteia. Retrieved 15 June 2020.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
23. ^ "Quando Montanelli comprò e violentò una bambina di 12 anni - Interview on YouTube". YouTube.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)

External links

• Quotations related to Indro Montanelli at Wikiquote

Media offices
Preceded by Ernesto Libenzi	Editor in chief of La Domenica del Corriere 1945–1946	Succeeded by Eligio Possenti
New title Founder	Editor in chief of Il Giornale 1974–1994	Succeeded by Vittorio Feltri
New title Founder	Editor in chief of La Voce 1994–1995	Newspaper failed
Preceded by Isabella Bossi Fedrigotti	Letters editor of Corriere della Sera 1995–2001	Succeeded by Paolo Mieli