The citation of Leninin the case of Gennaro Sangiuliano, is by no means obvious, but the Minister of Culture recalls the historic question of the Bolshevik revolutionary in asking himself “what to do?” about the right ‘cure’ for the Italian world of books. He does so by intervening in the headquarters of the Confcommerce at the inauguration of the advanced training course for booksellers organized by Ali, the Italian Booksellers Associationchurning out a series of proposals to answer his own question.
“I am a book fanatic – he begins – I have spent almost all my money on books, I have more than 15,000, some of them even valuable: with that money, I could have bought myself an apartment… My love for books is sincere and it is practiced, to the point of suggesting it every day on my profile Twitter a book to read”. Then, the minister’s proposals: “Establishing a fair fee for subsidized rents to bookshops housed in properties not privately owned but Municipalities and Regions, banks and other entities; because the book is not a detergent, it has an ethical value and cannot be treated like any commercial activity. The civic sense of a nation and the development of good citizens also depend on the constancy of their readings”.
Then: “Digital exists and we are not Luddites… but Amazon must pay taxes!”. Furthermore, “just as there is a Fus for cinema or theater, so there must be a Fus also for the world of books”. Finally, “I have already instructed my experts to study a severe increase in penalties against counterfeiting and the illegal reproduction of book texts”, announces Sangiuliano, underlining that “I am Minister of Culture for just four months, in the past years many things have been left to languish”.
(Of Enzo Bonaiuto)