Più Libri Più Liberi Reverses Antifascism Requirement

Organizers withdrew the mandatory declaration after controversy and linked funding talks with the Culture Ministry led them to promise to judge applications on editorial coherence.

Overview

Organizers introduced a supplementary requirement asking exhibitors to recognize antifascist values, then rescinded it following public criticism and threats of boycotts.
The fair’s direction said it will consider all participation requests, including seven submitted without the declaration, and will use the coherence of each editorial project as the main admission criterion.
Reports tied the reversal to near‑term meetings with the Centro per il libro and the risk of losing roughly €150,000–180,000 in ministry funding, and the Centro’s president publicly welcomed the change.
The decision prompted partisan responses with centre‑right politicians praising the rollback and some left‑leaning intellectuals defending the original affirmation as a safeguard against extremist platforming.
The episode extends a pattern of disputes at the Rome fair over platforming and censorship and raises questions about how future selection rules will be set and enforced for small and medium publishers.