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Fannying Around
Regular EURSOC readers will be aware that we have little time for the pronouncements of entertainers on human rights and political issues. So, we're not surprised that French actress Fanny Ardant let it be known that she admirered Italian Red Brigade terrorist Renato Curcio for "not becoming a businessman" and staying true to his beliefs.
Ardant described him as a "hero" and said that the Red Brigade's campaign was "Very moving and passionate."
Her remarks have been met with outrage - and a lawsuit - in Italy.
The Corriere della Sera newspaper asked if it was "passionately enthralling to kill innocent people, sow suffering and grief, spread terror".
The Red Brigades left a trail of blood throughout Italy in the 70s and 80s. The Marxist-Leninist group was determined to overthrough Italian capitalism; the most notorious of hundreds of murders was the 1978 kidnap and murder of former Prime Minister Aldo Moro. Terrorists linked to Red Brigades murdered two industrial advisers in 1999 and 2002: Massimo D'Antona and Marco Biagi were counselling the Italian government on labour reform. Italy's mainstream left, including hundreds of thousands of trade unionists, were revolted by the actions of the radical group and held street protests against the killings.
Ardant later apologised for any distressed caused by her comments, which were made as she promoted a new film, due to open at the Venice Film Festival. Some Italian politicians have made it clear that the actress is not welcome at the Festival; the Mayor of Venice Massimo Cacciari criticised Ardent, who he said "didn't understand what she was saying." He added, however, that the invitation to the festival was still open.
Others took a tougher line. Christian Democrat Luca Volonte said,
"Nobody asks an actress to be intelligent or to know about the innumerable tragedies but at least she should show respect for the victims' families." Director Michel Placido, who worked with Ardent, tried to be more diplomatic. Ardent, he said, was a member of France's cultural elite, who "read the history of others blinded by passion."
While Italians are by and large repulsed by the antics of Red Brigade terrorists and their right-wing counterparts, France's establishment has a two-decade history of offering sanctuary to Red Brigade terrorists who promise to renounce violence. Former President François Mitterand introduced the policy in 1985 and leftist terrorists have been feted in France ever since, with one multiple murderer Cesare Battisti becoming a successful crime novelist and another becoming a respected academic.
The Italian government takes a dim view of France's interference in its justice system. In recent years, it has applied for outlaws to be returned to Italy. Under President Jacques Chirac, there were signs that the French attitude to the unpunished terrorists in its midst was changing.
France's left-wing establishment was horrified when Paris courts ruled that Battisti could be returned to Italy (he fled and was finally captured in Brazil earlier this year).
Another terrorist, Marina Petrella, was captured in France in August. The convicted murderer and kidnapper fled Italy in 1986 and had been living quietly in a Paris suburb.
In Italy, it is illegal to praise a criminal. Piero Mazzola, the lawyer son of a policeman murdered by Red Brigade terrorists in 1974, has filed charges against Fanny Ardant:
"Renato Curcio was convicted for killing my father, among other crimes. So, together with my family, I have filed legal proceedings against Ardant because she is praising a murderer," he said.
"I just can't see how killing people can be called heroism," he said. "She may see the Red Brigades as passionate while sipping champagne in Paris, but for us it's very different."
