Levi reverses after Rovelli's stop at the Buchmesse

"I renew the invitation to Professor Carlo Rovelli to participate in the opening ceremony of Frankfurt 2024, to share with all of us the beauty of research and the value of knowledge". This was stated in a note by Ricardo Franco Levi, extraordinary commissioner of the Italian government Guest of Honor 2024 at the Frankfurt International Book Fair.

"I am sensitive and welcome with satisfaction the statements of government representatives confirming the desire to guarantee open participation in the Frankfurt Fair, respecting the principle and defense of pluralism of thought and ideas" explains Levi. "I also appreciated the understanding expressed by the Italian Publishers Association for the reasons of institutional prudence that had led me to the choices expressed as commissioner. Together we shared and reaffirmed our commitment to the defence of freedom of thought and expression. I have therefore accepted the hope of Aie that the presence of Professor Carlo Rovelli in Frankfurt can be confirmed", says Levi, who is president of the Italian Publishers Association and says he has renewed the invitation to Rovelli "in light of all this and in response to the many voices that have been raised from the world of culture". "Following the debate that has developed at the end of my decisions on how to participate in the Frankfurt Book Fair 2024, I confirm that I have expressed my choices as extraordinary commissioner, without having received any pressure or solicitation and to rigorously fulfill the institutional responsibility that was conferred on me by a decree of the President of the Republic", he underlines.

"Italy asked me to represent it at the opening ceremony of the Frankfurt Book Fair, but since I dared to criticize the Minister of Defense, my speech was canceled," the physicist Carlo Rovelli had denounced to ANSA, who in his speech on the stage of the May Day concert in Rome had spoken of a possible escalation in the war in Ukraine by attacking, without naming him, Minister Guido Crosetto.

Rovelli announces a letter received from Ricardo Franco Levi, extraordinary government commissioner for the Buchmesse 2024 that will see Italy as a guest of honor: "The clamor, the echo, the reactions that followed his speech at the concert on May 1 lead me to think, give me, indeed, the almost certainty, that his lesson that I had so strongly imagined and wanted for the inauguration ceremony of the Buchmesse with Italy Guest of Honor would become the occasion Not to taste, guided by his words, the fascination of research and to cast a glance at the boundaries of knowledge, but, instead, to relive controversies and attacks", reads the letter. "What more than anything else I feel the duty to avoid - and I take all of this, personal responsibility - is that an occasion of celebration and also of just national pride, turns into a source of embarrassment for those who will represent Italy that day. And I do not hide the hope that our country will be represented at the highest institutional level", Levi writes. "I am inclined to think that you first imagined the scenarios that your words would have opened. This does not, of course, mitigate the weight of this letter. Letter that I never wanted to write. I hope, at least, that he can help me not to lose his friendship", concludes the commissioner, hoping to "soon be able to read a new book" by Rovelli and maybe meet him "in person".

ANSA Agency

Crosetto: "Invitation to lunch Rovelli". The physicist: "Thank you, but the issue is political" - Politics

On the stage of the Concertone the physicist: 'Piazzisti di strumenti di guerra'. The VIDEO inside.

Crosetto: 'Rovelli? Leave me out of controversy'

"Someone decides that Carlo Rovelli will not participate in the Frankfurt Fair. From what I read from the letter he himself published, he is a friend of his. That I do not know, except for having been undersecretary under Mr Prodi. So leave me out of your polemics." This is how the Minister of Defense, Guido Crosetto, comments on the non-participation of the physicist Rovelli at the Frankfurt Book Fair where he was supposed to represent Italy.

In a note, the Minister of Defense says he is sorry to "disappoint the experts of Italian conspiracies, always on duty, who already speak of 'censorship' or pressure, regarding the decision of the President of the Italian Publishers Association, Ricardo Franco Levi". "I have never heard him in my life - he adds -, I am sorry that he decided to change speaker and I am absolutely certain that no member of the Italian Government or institutions has made any pressure. I am the first to hope for a rethink of the decision taken".

Sangiuliano: 'I am against censorship'

"I learn with great surprise of the story, unpublished for me, of the physicist Carlo Rovelli invited to open the Buchmesse in Frankfurt and of the subsequent letter from the commissioner who takes care of the organization". says the Minister of Culture Gennaro Sangiuliano. "In general, having been censored, I am against inflicting it on others. Maybe to that of Professor Rovelli I would add some other voices, that of Pierangelo Buttafuoco, Francesco Borgonovo, Marcello Veneziani or others in homage to pluralism" says Sangiuliano.