The Ultima Generazione activist tells how the defilements arise:«Never do what others expect»

Simone Ficicchia publishes his book "L'Ecovandalo" in April in which he talks about his journey and the awareness of the hatred that some feel towards him

"Vandalism?By “vandalism” Treccani indicates the “tendency to ruin, destroy, spoil without necessity and without reason, out of perverse taste or out of a silly and misunderstood display of strength, or even out of an inability to understand the beauty and usefulness of the things that are destroy”, so it seems that the vandal does not appreciate the value of what he damages.The actions of Latest Generationand are carried out on goods that the so-called vandal recognizes as superior goods in terms of beauty or value, to the point of following up on the need to use them to get people talking (and acting) about the only thing that matters in 2024:find a collective way to save our own skin."The Last Generation activist is lucid Simone Ficicchia in the pages of his book The Ecovandalo of which today, 20 April 2024, The Daily Fact publish an excerpt.

«The goal is to get the message across»

Ficicchia, class of 2022 from Voghera, protagonist of numerous actions by the environmentalist collective to ask for the abandonment of fossil fuels, tells how the idea of ​​a method of protest that is as much discussed as it is divisive was born.deface monuments, fountains, buildings and works of art.«Ever since I heard about nonviolent civil disobedience for the climate and saw the first xr13 actions around the world, one of my mantras is:“Never do what people would expect from an activist.”Moving away from the cliché of what the majority of people consider normal or simply plausible on the part of those who carry out public actions in the political sphere is a key aspect in being able to convey a message."The vehicle of the message, for the activist, must necessarily arouse a reaction in those who receive it.

The defilement of the Regional Council of Tuscany

The young man continues, who among others participated in the protest action at La Scala in Milan and at Regional Council of Tuscany:«Reactions often exaggerated, polarized, perhaps from politicians who ruffle their feathers in offense, but above all from many ordinary people who question the meaning of that gesture and perhaps for the first time in their lives talk about the climate crisis as a political issue .(…) We try to give maximum visibility to the message we want to convey, creating as much disorder as possible."In a passage of the book, Ficicchia writes about the sensations and emotions he felt during the defacement of Palazzo Pegaso in Florence.

The tension

«While Aldo positions himself on the side of the road opposite the Palazzo del Pegaso, ready to film everything that will happen for our legal protection, Nicole and Giordano prepare themselves on both sides of the entrance.They put the backpack on the ground measuredly, without haste.(…) Our three gazes of pure energy meet:simultaneously, two fire extinguishers appear in their hands and a yellow banner in mine (…).And off we go.Nicole, left, red.Giordano, right, yellow.I'm standing a little to the side, on the left, with the banner outstretched.I'm talking, but I can't say what.The words begin to flow naturally together with the first splashes of paint from the fire extinguishers, as if by opening their valves the tension that had gripped me since the morning had also loosened in one fell swoop.(…)".

The three key messages

And again:«The door, the facade, the windows protected by wrought iron railings and all the other architectural elements, made gray by years of acid rain and smog, are finally coloured.But the jet doesn't last more than twenty seconds:once the danger of being covered in paint by my companions is over, I move to the center of the scene to finish the speech.Nothing earth-shattering, but it contains the three key messages for the press and should be heard well, loud and clear:who we are (Last Generation), why we are doing it (the request to the government:stop public subsidies for fossil energy sources) and why each of the people who listen to us should do the same, joining the civil resistance.For the rest, it is mainly the images that do the talking.Anyone who watches what we are doing will have to remember this."