November 25th, 2004
Ermete Realacci - Corriere Magazine (read 5,478 times)
He was secretary of Legambiente for many years. He was very close to becoming Minister of the Environment. Ermete Realacci is a sui generis environmentalist. He is a fan of underwater fishing and has a vision of the environmentalism that often leads him to clash with the Greens, with Italia Nostra and the wwf. He is not a fanatical defender of the territory against the intervention of the man. Today he is one of the advisers, together with Paolo gentiloni, of Francesco Rutelli, Margherita.
They say the left will win the next election. Why are you fighting so much?
«Berlusconi has the votes, the charisma, the televisions, the money. For better or worse in the center right there is a reference point. A «master». In the center left no one. It is not possible and not even desirable. However, one should not exaggerate. When the vertices of the center-left were made for me it was an anguish. Everyone thought only to differentiate».
As pecoraro Scanio, leader of the Greens, who in 2000 made 470 declarations all’ansa?
«You can also find me in the ansa statements, but almost never for matters of institutional politics. The other day a letter of mine appeared on Repubblica regarding suv cars. There were many letters of reply».
You said, Margherita party has more souls than DS (old PD).
«Committed Catholicism, people left of the ds. But also, of course, former Christian Democrats, Marini, De Mita, Castagnetti, Franceschini. Maccanico, Bianco, Dini. environmentalism, movements, Giachetti, Vernetti. La Margherita is the prototype of the mixing of cultural families».
You and Paolo Gentiloni, also from the environmental movement, are the two closest to the prince, Francesco Rutelli.
I think Rutelli is a great asset. But in the economy of my day I prefer to deal with topics that not the political joke of the moment».
Rutelli is considered almost a traitor by certain environmentalists. Especially by the Greens.
«The Greens are a useful force but they are marginal. They have not succeeded in representing the potential of environmentalism».
Environmentalists are said to be conservative.
«Some of them. If we went back with a time machine one minute before the birth of Porto Marghera in the Venice lagoon we would all agree that it is a nonsense. But Venice?»
Venezia?
«What if we went back a minute before Venice was born? Some environmentalists would fight to defend that extraordinary wetland, the biotope».
And what about you?
«I consider it a wonderful adventure of the man. Do we consider the towers of San Gimignano an intolerable modification of the skyline? For a long time, part of environmentalism has mythologized the example of Yellowstone, eight hundred thousand hectares without a centre, a village, a craftsman. In the Italian parks there are thousands of inhabited centers, churches, fortresses, castles, landscapes marked by the action of the man. The Cinque Terre is a national park where the landscape, unique in the world, was produced by man, his poverty and his toil».
What kind of environmentalists don’t you like?
«Carlo Ripa di Meana leads a fair battle against wind turbines. He is the typical exponent of an environmental culture that I hope will never win. The culture of frustration and powerlessness. To think that the landscape should never, ever be changed is to deny history. Ripa di Meana had many political pitfalls. He signed appeals for the refounding vote. Then he wrote on the Sheet that we must dialogue with the centre right. Now he has cheered for Bush».
Who else don’t you like?
Sometimes Desideria Pasolini Dall’Onda, president of Italia Nostra. I cannot stand the idea of environmentalism as a dead culture, which must be limited to defending a legacy of the past from impending degradation. Today there is a clash in Ravello that sets Legambiente against Italia Nostra. Desideria Pasolini Dall’Onda opposes the construction of a small auditorium designed by Niemeyer. They consider it a cement of the territory. An auditorium of four hundred seats, ten meters high, beautiful, which would be built in an area where they want to make a parking».
Not the culture of the Lord NO.
«An environmentalist who cannot distinguish between the abusive houses of Agrigento and an auditorium of niemayer is doomed to defeat».
You were going to be Environment Minister...
«It is said several times. But when it comes to decisions on ministries, different parameters come into play from those that might lead to me».
Who was the best Environment Minister?
«Ronchi certainly. bordon was in charge for little time and did not leave a mark».
Is environmentalism in good health?
«When Legambiente organized the first operation“Clean Beaches”, 15 years ago, participated a few thousand people, considered half mad. This year we clean the world” 700,000 people took part. Today, people involved in pedestrianizing a square, defending a green space, fighting an illegal landfill are considered a small opinion leader, a person to trust. But…»
though?
«Politics has a superficial attitude towards environmental issues of general consensus».
Are you against a Green Party?
«The experience of a Green party representing environmentalism in Italy has become sterile. It’s not by chance that many have left the Greens, Mattioli, Scalia, Manconi, Ronchi. The problem of environmentalists today is, for example, to understand whether the line that Montezemolo proposes to Confindustria, a line that bets on quality, innovation, made in Italy, instead of condons, on sanatorium, on falsehood in the budget, on Article 18, can serve to build up economic policies more attentive to environmental issues. I think it is».
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