Interview to Andrea Camilleri, famous Italian author, novelist, scriptwriter. Here engaged in a conversation on unusual themes, with just a few hints, Camilleri suggests a possible way out in such hard times.
The intellectual? Let him do his job! The Crisis? Hopefully it will lead to a new conception of the social structure globally. The Unification of Italy? Not only an important historical development, but an indisputable progress. Bureaucracy? I laugh at it but, at the same time, I hope for changes. These are the answers of Andrea Camilleri to the questions of Primo Piano Scala c. Maybe, for once, he is relieved not to talk about his most famous character Salvo Montalbano. In any case this is a truly inspiring interview. And his statement “I hope that today young people consider themselves as Europeans born in Italy” reminds us that he has just received a honorary degree in European History at the University “La Sapienza” of Rome. We were wondering why the University had chosen the Sicilian-Italian writer but the answer came straight from his words during the lectio magistralis he gave in that occasion . He spoke about the enlightened Sicily of the XVIII Century, about the Constitution of the Kingdom inspired by Great Britain, about Sicily as the epicenter of the European turmoil, about Mazzini and the Sicilian Clandestine Committee: when it was a kingdom without a crown, Sicily dreamt a place in Europe. And at the end of his lecture he came to the conclusion that no authentic unity can exist without a profound and shared ideal (this word he repeated three times) of solidarity and brotherhood. These are the amazing words from an unsuspected pro-European. And what happened then? The European Commissioner for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, Ms. Maria Damanaki, wrote him a letter in which she blamed Montalbano for enjoying Novellame, She claimed that killing fish before it reaches reproductive age means jeopardising the conservation of fisheries resources. A serious infringement indeed! Was also the European Union infected by that bureaucracy Camilleri has always joked about? We are then waiting for the new EU Regulation on Infringement procedures applying to fictional characters.
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