“He is lying, no candidacy in exchange for my resignation” –

“A journalist’s indiscretions and information cannot be lies. Instead this is precisely Gomez’s method who lies by talking about alleged background stories that don’t exist.” Vittorio Sgarbi he doesn’t agree and attacks the director of the online version of Fatto Quotidiano Peter Gomez who during an episode of Tagadà revealed what would be a political background. “We learned – says the journalist – how Meloni, when she convinced him to resign in February, in exchange guaranteed him a candidacy for the European Championships”. For the art critic it is all false. “Meloni didn’t make me resign, I resigned from Porro. Then when she returned from the business trip she was on I met her to tell her my decision too. And she thanked me for having independently decided to resign without forcing her to do so.” So Gomez is telling a lie. “Yes, also because I had nothing to give in exchange so what exchange could there ever have been? His (Meloni’s, ed.) was a gesture of generosity but in Gomez’s arid mind there is no concept of generosity. They nominated me then it will be up to me to get the votes. It’s like giving a theater to Pavarotti.”

So how did the nomination proposal go? “It’s a job that starts from afar. When I met Meloni he proposed it to me, I repeat as a gesture of generosity for the attacks I was receiving, then I continued the project together with party leaders such as Donzelli and La Russa”. But the lies for Sgarbi don’t end here. Gomez said that the critic “has been convicted for years of fraud against the state”. Real? “It’s a story they’ve been repeating for years. In reality I was prosecuted for some absences made while I was on leave without pay, so no scam.” While for the affair of the paintings the investigation is still ongoing and the guarantee is that until the final sentence Sgarbi is to be considered innocent. And on the subject of guaranteeism, Sgarbi reveals “I would have had Salis nominate with Forza Italia in memory of Berlusconi and in the wake of the party’s guaranteeist tradition”.

Was there any reaction to the news of your candidacy? “As soon as the news of my candidacy came out I received a series of messages from people congratulating me. One of these struck me because a theater actress, named Annalisa Favetti, wrote to me that having learned of my candidacy she had finally found a reason to go and vote”. So despite all the anti-articles and Report episodes, Sgarbi still garners a lot of support? “I can’t walk a meter without them stopping me to ask me for a selfie, when Gomez walks down the street they mistake him for a parking attendant.” But what will he do once he lands in the European Parliament? “We need a garrison in Europe to defend the Italian artistic heritage which is the first in the world and then I will propose to UNESCO to make Magna Graecia a World Heritage Site. A philosophical, cultural and artistic concept that unites Italy and Greece and which gave foundation and origin to Europe”. And Gomez? “Gomez had insistently invited me to his program La Confessione, so I won’t go”.