The right to disagree (without being put to the pillory on social media by a minister)

In Italy this is now also happening: to be exposed to the media pillory by a minister simply for having expressed his dissent on an engineering work. It happened in Dario Costa, 21 years old, a 21 -year -old psychology student, who in recent days had taken part in the demonstration against the construction of the bridge over the Strait of Messina. Like many, the young man – asked by a local radio – had reiterated his strong opposition to the infrastructure using an animated tone.

Too bad, however, that our vice premier and Minister of Transport Matteo Salvini has thought well (indeed bad) to take a couple of seconds of the interview in which Dario Costa says that “the bridge is a delinquent act” and slamming that decontextualized frame on his social channels with a caption loaded with sarcasm: “I share with you the packed and in -depth arguments of this expert in public works. hot … my new hero ”.

It is not difficult to imagine how it ended up knowing how the dynamics of the web work.

“At this moment I only find myself dealing with a wave of death threats, swellings, illness wishes and there is no lack of those who among his supporters gives me the mental patient. – explains the student in a video published on Instagram – a wave hoisted towards me precisely by one of the greatest institutional representatives of the state in which I live and of which I am a citizen. This is that he has shown him so much of those 5 seconds? sit-in? ” underlining that on fascist events with a lot of Roman greeting the minister has never made witty montages.

“It seems that his only concern is ridiculing and neutralizing any potential opponent. – continues Dario Costa – he has wounded me medically and as a person, because basically what matters of people if they are our protesters, true Salvini? I shouted to be against the bridge. For this reason would I be crazy? Only a madman can he go against them? (…) But then I remember badly or was you a few years ago against the bridge?”

Dario Costa has been targeted by insults, but there were no lack of comments to support the young man and many harshly criticized the action of the minister

“Cyberbullying. Defamation. In instigation to hatred. Abuse of power.” Someone writes.

A wave of hatred to have expressed his own

Matteo Salvini could have taken the opportunity to respond to that boy with sensible arguments and with concrete data, instead he chose the way of the ridicule. And so a young man of only 21 years of age found himself a public target, without defense weapons. Practically a move that could be expected from a 13 -year -old teenager who wants to do wrong to the schoolmate. Being ministers and holding an institutional position does not mean being legitimized to allow a citizen to be exposed to insults and threats for having said his own. All this, moreover, was predictable. And then we wonder about bullying and cyberbullying that spreads among the younger generations …

The freedom to express one’s or opinion and disagree is not a favor that the government can choose to grant or not: it is a sacred constitutional right. Perhaps the real problem is not the opposition to the Bridge of the Strait, nor to the Tav or any other public work. The great problem of this Italy is that the debate on such serious issues have reduced to a clash between fans, where those who dissent risks drowning in an hatred wave triggered by those who should represent and protect citizens.

Probably the bridge over the Strait will eventually be done, but that made of confrontation and credibility that unites citizens and institutions has already collapsed for a while.

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Sources: Matteo Salvini/Dario Costa