"No more crosses on the peaks", after the controversy the editorial director of Cai resigns

First jolts in Cai, the Italian Alpine Club, after the controversy that has been unleashed on the controversial issue of crosses on the summit .

A few hours later, in fact, the resignation of the editorial director Marco Albino Ferrari - held responsible for a sentence pronounced during a conference organized by the Catholic University and according to which new crosses would no longer be installed on the mountains so as not to offend sensitivity no one - and the editor of the Cai "Lo scarpone" website Pietro Lacasella , author of an article that appeared on the portal precisely on the theme of summit crosses.

Ferrari has entrusted his decision to social networks. Immediately distancing himself from the "invented statements according to which I would have said that the summit crosses must be removed". A misunderstanding which, he adds, «the president of Cai has helped to fuel: he apologized to Minister Santanchè for a non-existent fault by distancing himself from a statement of mine that was never made . Too bad, by not defending his collaborators and his institution from unfounded controversies, he missed the opportunity to demonstrate that Cai has a straight back».

A real storm had broken out around Ferrari's alleged statement. A "senseless and unacceptable" proposal, a "useless and offensive act of arrogance" and an expression of a "Taliban ideology", some of the comments coming primarily from the center-right led by FdI. The government had also made itself heard with the minister Daniele Santanchè and the request to the Alpine Club to renege on the decision, complaining that it had not been informed.

It had fallen to the president Antonio Montani to throw water on the fire: " We have never dealt with the subject of crosses at the summit in any forum, much less taking an official position ", he assured, personally apologizing to Santanchè "for the misunderstanding", born of Ferrari's "personal statements" and an editorial in "Lo Scarpone".

The club portal had highlighted the broad agreement that emerged in the conference "on the need to leave the existing crosses intact, because they are significant evidence of a cultural cross-section, and at the same time to avoid the installation of new symbols on the peaks". The editorial spoke of a thesis "fully shared by Cai" adding: no one intends to remove the crosses that already exist, but it is "the present characterized by an intercultural dialogue that is expanding and by new landscape-environmental needs, to induce Cai to disapprove of placing new crosses and symbols on our mountains".

“You have to pass over my body to remove even just a crucifix from an Alpine peak” the secretary of the League Matteo Salvini had also attacked head on. Then the words of the Minister of Public Administration Paolo Zangrillo (Forza Italia): "The debate on the crosses at the top of the peaks, considered 'anachronistic and divisive', leaves me astonished", he reiterated indicating the cross as a "reference point for climbers » and religious symbol whose «lesson of humanity is universal and valid for all».

Then a whole succession of indignant statements culminating with the request for resignation for "whoever had this idea" advanced by the deputy Mauro Malaguti.

Yesterday Cai also shared a post in which it provides its version of events explaining its position. "The article as published in Lo Scarpone suggested that there was an official position when in reality it was merely a personal opinion ", reads the long post which however unleashed several users who criticized the Italian Alpine Club guilty - according to them - of not having defended the two and of having demonstrated "servility towards political power".

Then the announcement of the strike by the collaborators of "Lo Scarpone" , who express full solidarity with Ferrari and Lacasella, inviting them to return to the helm of the magazine.

"We are amazed at how the Cai presidency - reads the note - has not defended those who with passion and professionalism deal with telling our mountains and our culture, bringing the discussion back to the merits of the real contents of the articles".

(Unioneonline/vl)