Vannacci, Paglia: “Those who wear uniforms are distant from their ideas”
The clash between Lieutenant Colonel Gianfranco Paglia and General Roberto Vannacci, candidate for the European elections, went well beyond the General's electoral campaign
ROME – The uniform, the oath, freedom. The clash between Lieutenant Colonel Gianfranco Paglia and General Roberto Vannacci, candidate for the European elections, went well beyond the General’s electoral campaign, the books on courage and the world upside down up to the idea-provocation of apartheid classes for disabled people. Especially if that courage, described in a biography book, for Paglia was transformed into a life in a wheelchair while wearing his soldier’s stars intact. Clarifications, explanations, ‘flashes in the pan’ and the dispute slipped into the personal, bringing with it a chorus of wild followers of the General. “I did not lack respect for having expressed my opinion, which was not only mine but that of the entire Defense towards him (i.e. that it would be better if he were elected in Europe so as not to go back to wearing a uniform). But I have no jurisdiction over him as Commander. Lieutenant Colonel Gianfranco Paglia explains to Dire why the Commander does not comment on Vannacci: “I can imagine he was a good commander – he adds – I only knew him through Folgore ceremonies. Anything I said would be a lack of respect. It is up to me to make any judgment”.
Paglia, like Vannacci, also had a political experience, but the method was completely different. “When the candidacy was proposed to me, I asked my Chief of Staff, the President of the MOVM Group and then my wife. It seemed correct and right to me – explains Paglia – to inform the leaders and ask them for advice. on the merits of how others can behave in making their own choices“. Paglia ran and was elected in the PDL Group for one mandate (from 2008 to 2013) and with Vannacci the Northern League member claims a marked distance of ideas. “I am distant from his ideas, as is the vast majority of people who wear the uniform. We believe that there are rights that should not be trampled on. I prefer to respect everyone’s choices because they do not harm people and do not crimes are committed. And it hurts when a commander of women and men speaks like this.” Paglia is referring above all to Vannacci’s words on disability which made even the government allies of the League tremble, given that this government has dedicated a ministry to disability.
“He did badly when he spoke about disability even if General Vannacci then reshaped what he said. I read the interview and his quotation marks were clear. I believe that having separate classes is for disabled people and for the most gifted, it means canceling decades of work for inclusion by our country. The disabled person, in any form, is an added value, a source of teaching and dignity also for families in how they face the discomfort every day. I’m not talking about myself, because I’m lucky I had and have the Defense that supports me completely and I will never stop being grateful for this.” Paglia knows this well, knowing every aspect and every suffering of disability and telling young people in Italian schools how heroism is resistance and how he would do everything again, even that Somalia which took away his former life, in the name of that oath to the country, without any regret. Is this perhaps the ‘courage that wins’ or is it a book by General Vannacci?