R.I.P. Indro Montanelli

Eight years ago one of Italian best journalists and historians died.
Throughout his career he retained an idiosyncratic and particularly undiplomatic style, even when this made him very unpopular among his peers and employers.
In 1994 he was the first one, coming from a conservative political position, explaining how Silvio Berlusconi was going to be the biggest contemporary danger against Italian democracy.

When Silvio Berlusconi, the proprietor of Il Giornale, entered politics and founded a new right-wing party Forza Italia, Montanelli came under heavy pressure to switch his editorial line to a position favourable to Berlusconi. Montanelli never hid his bad opinion of Berlusconi: "He lies as he eats", the journalist declared. In the end, protesting his independence, he founded a new daily, for which he resurrected the name La Voce ("The Voice"), which had belonged to an historical newspaper run by Giuseppe Prezzolini. La Voce, always an elitist paper, folded after about a year, and Montanelli returned to Corriere della Sera.

From 1995 to 2001 he was the chief letters editor of Corriere della Sera, answering a letter a day on a page of the newspaper known as "La Stanza di Montanelli" ("Montanelli’s Room"). In spite of having been a renowned anti-Communist all his life, Montanelli spent his last years vigorously opposing Silvio Berlusconi’s politics. He was mentor of a relevant group of mates, followers and students as Mario Cervi, Marco Travaglio, Paolo Mieli, Roberto Ridolfi, Andrea Claudio Galluzzo, and Roberto Gervaso.

If only he could talk once more... R.I.P. INDRO