History rarely begins with extremes, it begins with small deviations that we learn to accept.
Throwing paint at a politician may seem, at first glance, to be a minor, almost folkloric gesture.
But it’s not. It is the affirmation that the opponent is no longer someone with whom you argue and has become someone who humiliates himself, who marks himself.
Because when politics stops being a confrontation of ideas and becomes public exposure to humiliation or aggression, something essential begins to change. The ink thrown today in the name of indignation paves the way for something more.
Because when you accept that your opponent doesn’t deserve respect, you quickly accept that you don’t even deserve security. And it was this border that was crossed in the attack against the March for Life.
And tomorrow the attack could be on a symbol of the State? To the Assembly of the Republic itself? Exaggeration?
Weimar Germany offers perhaps the most disturbing example of how the normalization of political violence can pave the way for democratic collapse.
In the years before Hitler’s rise, the streets were the scene of clashes and systematic intimidation. The State hesitated, divided itself and allowed the normalization of what happened, until, in 1933, the Reichstag (German Parliament) was set on fire. The rest is history.
When confidence in the rule of law wavers, people begin to doubt the ability of institutions to guarantee security, order and freedom.
And that’s how societies start to slip. Not through a sudden collapse, but through a succession of small deviations that are eroding trust in institutions.
This is why the attack against the March for Life cannot be minimized, because even if it fails, as it fortunately did, it carries a deeper meaning. That someone who thinks differently can be intimidated, silenced or eliminated.
And that is, in itself, a rupture.
And Democracy is not only measured by the right to vote, it is measured above all by the ability to guarantee that divergent positions, even profoundly divergent ones, coexist without fear.
Anyone who asserts themselves against extremism, against authoritarianism and against fascism, cannot allow, either by action or by omission, the installation of practices that seek to intimidate, exclude or silence others.
Political violence is not confined to those who practice it, it generates reactions and radicalizes positions.
And history also clearly shows us that extremes feed off each other.
Therefore, what we are witnessing is, without a shadow of a doubt, an act of political terror against Democracy. And those who perpetuated this act of terror must be exemplarily punished.
Because Democracy doesn’t just fall when it is attacked, it falls when it hesitates to defend itself.
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