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Demonstration by right-wing extremists (on May 29 in Rome): "They targeted me because I have been writing about them for more than 20 years"
Photo: Andrea Ronchini / NurPhoto / imago images
I've been receiving threats, including death threats, for years.
Now they arrive almost every day - from neo-fascists, neo-Nazis and right-wing extremists.
They targeted me because I have been writing about them for more than 20 years.
Every day I report on neo-fascist and extremist incidents and on the increasingly violence-glorifying propaganda.
They don't forgive me for that.
They can't stand me turning the spotlight on their organizations.
The aggressions hit me in many places.
Once they smeared my car with the swastika and SS symbols.
They even broke into my hallway in Bergamo and smeared Mussolini's title "Dux" on the walls - next to a swastika and the threat: "Disgraceful Berizzi - you'll pay for that".
And so it goes on and on, in many places in Italy.
They hung a banner against me on a highway bridge.
Hateful slogans against me are propagated everywhere: in or in front of sports stadiums, in front of theaters and event halls where I hold readings, on the walls of houses ... When I presented my book »NazItalia« in Padua, a group of neo-Nazis in black T-shirts crept in menacingly the bookstore and disrupted the reading.
When I was performing in Verona once, about a hundred ultras gathered in front of the venue.
The police and carabinieri had to cordon off the area.
Add to this the many insults and threats on social media.
Italy: 24 journalists protected by bodyguards - almost all of them for research on the Mafia
That's why I've lived under police protection for two and a half years.
In Italy, I'm not the only journalist who has to be accompanied by bodyguards.
We are now 24 colleagues.
But everyone else does research in the mafia milieu.
I'm the only one threatened by the right-wing scene.
Everything is documented, there are reports, investigations against the aggressors are ongoing across Italy.
Unfortunately, the threats have not subsided, they have actually increased.
Ah, now he's under police protection, now he's scared - that's the tone of the right.
But it is not like that.
After all, you can neither apply for nor refuse personal protection.
The Italian Ministry of the Interior assesses the danger situation and then makes the decision who will get bodyguards - and when they will be withdrawn.
In my case, the Bergamo carabinieri called one day and told me that I was now under police protection.
Police protection?
"A drama for the protected and for the protectors"
It was a shock to me because it changed my life completely.
Everything becomes more complicated, freedoms are restricted, especially freedom of movement.
If I want to go somewhere, I have to register it well in advance so that it can be organized.
Even if I want to go to a restaurant or the beach.
Above all, it complicates my work as a journalist.
Now I can no longer just do research in the right-wing scene, for example among the right-wing ultras in the stadium.
For example, I'm interested in the milieu of some fitness clubs, where people are trained not only to become athletes, but also political soldiers of the extreme right.
But because I receive threats from this scene every day, my bodyguards forbid me to meet such people.
My face is now known and the bodyguards are noticeable.
And for some confidential sources, it's hard to speak to me when the police bodyguards are always around.
Living under police protection is a drama for the protected and the protectors, to whom I am of course very grateful.
They enable me to live and work in safety.
Still, I feel like I'm in a mental cage.
I find it paradoxical that I lose freedoms while those who threaten me can move about freely.
My fate is unique in Europe.
I don't know of any journalist in Germany, France or Great Britain, not even in Poland or Hungary, who has to live under police protection because of right-wing extremist threats.
It's a sad Italian record.
Unfortunately, right-wing party leaders such as Matteo Salvini (Lega) or Giorgia Meloni (Fratelli d'Italia) also play a role.
They attacked me several times on social media.
On the one hand, it is an honor to be insulted by both.
It shows that I'm doing my job well.
(You can read a detailed portrait of the far-right politician Meloni here.)
On the other hand, I find that worrying.
After all, these are former members of the government who discredit a journalist and target their base.
If you post something new about me, I know the grassroots threats will follow shortly after.
Such politicians may or may not like my work - but I only do my job as a journalist when I report on right-wing extremist phenomena.
"The state could ban neo-fascist movements within two hours"
Italy invented fascism and it defeated it.
How is it possible that a journalist who researches neo-fascists can only work with bodyguards 76 years later?
To date, Italy has not succeeded in eliminating right-wing extremist threats.
By placing threatened individuals under police protection, the state goes on the defensive.
He has to protect me because various governments - including left-wing governments in past years - have not bothered to solve the problem.
Somehow, fascism disappeared from Italy's political agenda.
As if it was nobody's business anymore.
It is an absurd situation, especially in comparison with the mafia and the colleagues who research them at great risk.
The fight against the mafia will likely last generations.
Neo-fascist movements, on the other hand, could be banned by the state within two hours.
Unfortunately, there is no political will to do this.
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Lega boss Salvini: Is the government on the side of a nostalgic Mussolini supporter - or on the side of the constitution?
Photo: Salvatore Esposito / imago images / Pacific Press Agency
The problem is that there are a lot of gray areas.
Fascist or neo-fascist statements are accepted in not exactly small parts of society.
Just a few days ago, a state secretary proposed to the Draghi government to rename a square in his hometown of Latina near Rome: it should no longer bear the names of the two legendary prosecutors Borsellino and Falcone, who were murdered in the fight against the mafia - but again like formerly called "Mussolini Square" in honor of Arnaldo Mussolini, the younger brother and confidante of the "Duce".
I think it's unbelievable that this State Secretary, a party friend of Lega leader Salvini, is still in office.
Is the government on the side of a nostalgic Mussolini supporter - or on the side of the constitution?
“Nobody wants the days of Mussolini back.
But fascism can take on a new face. "
Of course, nobody wants the times of Benito Mussolini back.
The black shirts should not return, there will probably not be a new march on Rome.
But fascism can take on a new face.
History teaches that in fragile times, racist, authoritarian reflexes return.
It is dangerous to trivialize such phenomena, as happens in Italy.
Simply changing the subject and no longer writing about neo-fascists and right-wing extremists is out of the question for me. That would be a defeat for me. Journalism must defend the constitution of Italy. That's why I fight neo-fascism - but also the indifference in the country. I am not afraid of the fascists, I am afraid of the silence in the country. If no one talks about right-wing extremism, its supporters can spread their message undisturbed.