Andrea Giambruno’s latest gaffe: that of migrants is a “transhumance”, like that of beasts

In cases like these, the options you are faced with are essentially two: ignorance or carelessness in explaining what you really think. In the first case Andrea Giambruno, television journalist and companion of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, does not know the meaning of the term “transhumance”, an expression linked to pastoralism which he used to describe the flows of migrants from Africa to Europe. In the second hypothesis however, Andrea Giambruno, television journalist and companion of the Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, he really thinks that it is legitimate and permissible to compare those who put themselves on a boat in search of a better destiny in a more hospitable land to sheep or cows.

Each of us can choose which of the two options to choose as probable. In the meantime, the conductor of Diary of the day on Rete4 he is once again at the center of controversy, after his statement (perhaps it’s time to stop talking about “gaffes”, as one would do between friends who joke at the bar and stumble upon indelicate topics) about the rape of a young girl in Palermo. «Perhaps we should be more protective in our dialogue and vocabulary. If you go dancing, you have every right to get drunk, there must be no type of misunderstanding and no type of stumble, but if you avoid getting drunk and losing consciousness, maybe you also avoid running into certain problems because then the wolf you can find it”, he said on that occasion, sparking the ire of those who think that we should work to ensure that girls do not encounter the wolf, regardless of how much alcohol they have drunk.

It took an intervention from Meloni (the last, according to the Prime Minister, who had made it known on that occasion that she would no longer comment on the words of a journalist, even if it was her partner) to «put a patch” to the situation. «He meant to keep your eyes open», the President had said in defense of Giambruno.

Now, after the rapes, the migrants arrive. Yet another questionable phrase from Giambruno arrives on the occasion of the Silvio Berlusconi’s celebrations for what would have been his 87th birthday. «I have heard it said, by Italian politicians (who perhaps hold very important roles), that Berlusconi was a formidable geopolitical visionary. That is, he was perhaps the greatest Foreign Minister the country has had in the last 30 years”, began Giambruno. «He had already understood everything about transhumance, if we can define it that way, from Africa to Europe».

Tens of thousands of desperate people who risk their lives to escape situations of war and poverty, in the simile offered by Giambruno, simply become beasts. Whyit is transhumance – a wonderful tradition in many of our areas – it was and is that seasonal journey made by shepherds with their flocks, to take them to graze in the mountains and then bring them back to the valley. Back and forth, season after season, without asking why, simply following the shepherd and the dog’s barking.

And, even if someone will say that for the umpteenth time Giambruno’s words have been exploited, one has to wonder if he is a journalist, even before a first gentlemandoes not have to focus more on the meaning of the words he uses.