In his campaign to end the“cultural hegemony” attributed to the left, the right-wing and far-right majority in power in Italy have won an additional battle. Since Saturday January 20, the Italian cultural world has been agitated by a new controversy relating to the appointment, considered fraudulent by some, of the director Luca De Fusco, favorite of the right, at the head of the Theater of Rome. For several weeks, the board of directors of this major cultural institution, which brings together three public stages, had transformed into a battlefield between political and institutional interests over the choice of its future director.
The Theater of Rome depends in fact on the municipality of the capital, governed by the left-wing mayor Roberto Gualtieri and by the Lazio region, whose president, Francesco Rocca, belongs to Fratelli d’Italia, the far-right party of the president of the Italian council, Giorgia Meloni. The left wing of the board of directors supported the candidacy of culture official Onofrio Cutaia, and the right wing, that of Mr. De Fusco. The representatives of the two opposing political tendencies and administrative levels therefore faced each other, with two votes each, the presence of a representative of the Ministry of Culture, Gennaro Sangiuliano, tilting the balance to the right.
For the municipality of Rome, the purely majority logic was however disqualified, the capital providing the theater with the majority of its funding. However, while its representatives believed that a negotiation would be possible on this basis, they were taken by surprise by their adversaries. As part of a board meeting convened by its vice-president without the knowledge of its president, and which was held hastily in the absence of the latter as well as a member of the municipality, the representatives of the right in power entrusted the post of director to Mr. De Fusco. Those absent learned of his appointment in the press.
Building a “new national narrative”
Director of forty shows, former director of multiple theaters throughout Italy and of several festivals, De Fusco now finds himself, at 66, at the heart of a conflict which does not concern his qualifications. Around his appointment, the war for positions of responsibility in major public cultural institutions continues to play out, which began since Giorgia Meloni came to power, and which the right is winning.
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