«For Belarus I am in great pain. International institutions should act more decisively. When the oppression of the Lukashenko regime against the protesters grew, not much was done and now, after the dissident was kidnapped from the plane forced to land in Minsk, all of Europe calls for justice unanimously, speaks of sanctions, but perhaps it is too late. The helpless cry of Belarus will remain in our heads for years, if the democratic world does not prove to be conscious and determined ».
Polish, 59 years old, the writer Olga Tokarczuk received the Nobel Prize for Literature 2018 (delivered in 2019): the Minister of Culture of Warsaw, then, had only commented that he had never been able to read one of his novels. In a public speech he denounced the anti-Semitism and colonialism of Polish history: he received so many threats that for a time he had to have an escort. He refused the honorary citizenship of Lower Silesia, the Polish region where he lives, in order not to share it with the other winner, a bishop hostile to homosexuality. On June 17 she will be in Taormina at the Taobuk festival, which she will inaugurate and where she will be awarded with the Award of Literary Excellence. And recently among other things, he signed an appeal to Putin for the health of the opponent Alexei Navalny, in prison. “I have always supported every appeal to put an end to the persecutions.”
Recently he also wrote to Ursula von der Leyen, with other intellectuals, “against the repression of LGBT communities in Poland”. Did it have an impact?
«The reaction of the EU has been slow: von der Leyen replied, but after a long time. Perhaps the gears of the Union are turning slowly. We hope, however, that they are efficient. What is happening in Poland is disconcerting. The attack on the LGBT movement is out of control and some municipalities can declare themselves “LGBT free zones”. It is against the spirit of the EU. But above all against civil law ”.
Also in Poland four months ago a law prohibited abortion, and the protests have not died down.
“No, but they have been greatly weakened by the anti-Covid restrictions. The law is barbaric. But those who continued to protest despite the prohibitions are persecuted. The virus has helped the government and continues to do so. Belarus is an example that regimes feel safer in the new global pandemic situation: a society that is afraid submits more easily to orders and prohibitions. The lockdown cancels the protests on the streets and dismemberes the social fabric ».
Not only in Belarus, but also in Russia, Asia, Hong Kong, many popular protests in recent months have been repressed. Is it possible that authoritarianisms are gaining the upper hand?
“It is a concern that I share. In Poland, too, I see people who think differently from the ruling party get discouraged. The illusion of well-being, then, at least for us, makes freedom seem an exclusive commodity without which one can still live. It has already happened many times in the history of Poland and the world. I have the impression that most people lack an idea of the future of their own. And I too, in a sense, feel dull. Even more disheartening is the return of violence. Just thirty years ago you could travel safely from Paris to Delhi by car, in theory. Not today”.
Among his books translated abroad, the most recent is The Lost Soul, a story recently published in the United States. A man, by dint of running too much, loses his soul. To recover it, he has to sit still for two or three years. Lockdown metaphor?
«I wrote the book before, but I recognize that it is a good anticipation. Many people, myself included, nowadays feel that the production of disposable items, the consumption of meat, traveling by plane everywhere, is not normal; it is a monstrous, overstimulated, excessive reality. Perhaps this pandemic is the Black Swan that will help us change. The Nobel celebrations, for me, coincided with the year of Covid so they were canceled. I rested ».
The Nobel Prize for 2018 was awarded to her the following year: the ceremony had been suspended due to a sex scandal. There have been many in recent years. Do you think they have changed our perception of women?
“We are collectively processing the trauma of misogyny. We talk about it everywhere, we examine, we condemn a generic violence against women that exists in every sphere of life and in almost every environment. It’s fascinating: we realize it more and more, even in pop culture. But then I look to Poland, to abortion laws. And my pessimistic side asks: how long will it last? ».
June 1, 2021 (change June 1, 2021 | 23:08)
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