Relieved by the cultural advent of St. Gallen: the scandal surrounding Giuseppe Gracia is embarrassing for everyone involved

Hansruedi Kugler, editor of Focus

Persona non grata, an unwanted person. This is what Giuseppe Gracia feels on the cultural scene of his hometown, St. Gallen. The fact that the president of a cultural association, the national counselor of SP, Claudia Friedl, dumped a program already printed without contacting him directly, he finds niveaulos. The unloading took place these days, place is the upcoming cultural advent on the place Pic-O-Pello in the monastery district of St. Gallen.

Giuseppe Gracia is a writer, but in the main profession of the diocese of Chur. In this capacity, he has been defending for many years the conservative attitude of Bishop Vitus Huonder on many channels. "It's probably as if I were the communications officer of Darth Vader and the spokesperson for the Death Star," says Gracia in an open letter to Claudia Friedl. The national counselor of the PS had justified in the Tagblatt the projection that "the spokesman of a bishop who incites homosexuals to fight and leads a bitter fight against abortion and contraception" does not correspond to an Advent event in which "a peaceful climate with culture, mulled wine and music" should be maintained.

The pettiness combines here in the poison with the offense. Yes: it is mean to unload a local author who is used to this restaurant where he read Christmas stories on December 19th. An author who in 1992 made his novel "Riss" plays a big role in this very place. And yes, it's a deeper insult sign that this author publicly outraged.

Giuseppe Gracia is in the same situation as the satirist Andreas Thiel. It is not a coincidence that both of them sat a month ago at the same panel in St. Gallen on the theme of "freedom of expression". Both blame the intolerance of the "left-liberal mainstream," both see the cultural scene dominated from left to right. After being the victim of Islam in the "Weltwoche", the cabaret Andreas Thiel was no longer hired by most small theaters. We have heard about it: Thiel has gone from an entertaining, elegant and cynical satirist with posh theater characters to a stubborn political chronicler with a vision of the world of SVP. No more funny, politically not acceptable.

The journalistic development of Giuseppe Gracia is parallel to that of Andreas Thiel. Since his earliest novels, in which he has created a captivating literature with an existential fury stemming from his migrant background, he has increasingly faded away and turned into a journalist as a defender of a conservative bishop and commentator at the sharp tongue.

In Thiel, as in Gracia, one realizes that art has been lost to them.

No wonder then, a complete alienation took place. In his latest book, Gracia called the "caliphate" the "great current of left". What a horrible comparison, if we put the moralism of the left liberal party of Western Europe in the vicinity of the terror of the Islamic State! An author should not be surprised that it is the red garment for many people with such provocations. However, it is embarrassing for all involved to be petty and hurt in Advent, the time of anticipation and reconciliation.