FdI organisation chief and MP Giovanni Donzelli said although he recognised that the defence ministry, which is led by a senior FdI figure, was right in opening disciplinary action against the officer, his rights to freedom of expression were protected by the Italian Constitution.
General Roberto Vannacci has been removed from his post as head of the military geographical institute in Florence and is awaiting a less prominent posting after airing his anti-gay and other views in his book, The world back to front.
On the back of substantial publicity and social media support for his opinions, the book has become a hot seller on Amazon.
On Saturday evening, the far right and neoFascist party Forza Nuova (FN) proposed that Vannacci stand in a by-election for the Senate seat of Monza, near Milan, which has been left vacant by the death of three-time ex-prime minister and media mogul, Silvio Berlusconi.
“In the hope that he is against the war, and against vaccination madness, I ask Roberto Vannacci to stand for Forza Nuova in the by-election in Monza,” FN leader Roberto Fiore said.
“An act of courage that Lombards and Italians would appreciate. Italians want an Italian Revolution”.
Vannacci has so far not responded to the call, and is not expected to.
While General Roberto Vannacci has been removed from his post as head of the military geographical institute in Florence, the publicity generated by commentary on his self-published sexist, racist, homophobic and antisemitic book has seen sales skyrocket. (Photo: ANSA)
Defending Vannacci’s Constitutional rights in an interview with Italy’s biggest selling non-sports daily, Corriere della Sera on Sunday, Donzelli said: “In a free world you write what you think.
“If we laid down that it is the task of politics to decide the merits of ideas it would be the end of democracy.”
Donzelli blasted the centre-left opposition Democratic Party (PD) for criticising Vannucci’s book.
“Who gave the PD the right to self-proclaim themselves as censors?” he asked.
“I wouldn’t like to see us arrive at the principle that you can only write ideas if the PD likes them.
“What do they want? Stoning in the street? Burning books they don’t agree with? A gulag for ideas that don’t correspond to the many factions they are always squabbling in?”
Donzelli’s defence of Vannacci prompted PD Lower House caucus secretary Silvia Roggiani to say the FdI MP “should be ashamed of himself”.
“In Donzelli’s opinion, those who have roles of responsibility in the State can say anything, can offend people, ignore rights, make racist and homophobic proclamations,” she said.
“He talks of the Constitution but perhaps he has never read it.
“We’ll send him a copy.
“The only ones who aren’t supposed to speak are the exponents of the PD and the opposition...
“Let it be clear to Donzelli, we will always and strenuously fight to make sure that Italy does not turn back on its democratic values and that, instead, it will go forward combatting people who are nostalgic (for Fascism) and reactionaries.”
Lower House Brothers of Italy (FdI) Whip Tommaso Foti said on Sunday that the Left was attacking Donzelli because it had run out of solid arguments to make against the right.
“It was enough for the Rt Honourable Donzelli to touch an exposed nerve of the PD, that is its attempt to take the place of the hierarchically competent authorities to judge the conduct of General Vannacci, and against him came concentrated the attack of the faithful and various acolytes of (Democratic Party, PD, leader Elly) Schlein.
“The technique is always the same, it has deep roots and it is wholly predictable: accusing a political adversary of what the latter has never said and mounting a virulent polemic.
“All Donzelli did was to repeat that it is not up to the Democratic Party or other parties to decide what can and what cannot be written in books, a basic principle of democracy.
“It’s true, in a democracy all ideas have citizenship rights, except for those that, if they were upheld, would deny other ides or people the right to exist. We’ve already been there. Enough already,” former Lazio Governor and ex-centre left Democratic Party (PD) leader Nicola Zingaretti said. (Photo: ANSA)
The PD’s rights chief, Alessandro Zan, a gay activist who filed an anti-homophobia bill sunk by the centre right amid fears of curbing free expression, said on X that “Donzelli’s ravings on Vannucci give the lie to (Defence Minister Guido) Crosetto (a close ally of Meloni).
“For Brothers of Italy there is no problem if a serving general spews misogynistic, racist, and homophobic hate, for them the problem is the PD that asks for the Constitution to be respected. Is this the line of Giorgia Meloni’s party?”.
Former Lazio Governor and ex-centre left Democratic Party (PD) leader Nicola Zingaretti said that Italy respected the right to freedom of expressing ideas except those that would deny other people the right to exist.
“It’s true, in a democracy all ideas have citizenship rights, except for those that, if they were upheld, would deny other ides or people the right to exist,” the PD MP said.
“We’ve already been there. Enough already.”
Elsewhere, Italian Left (SI) economy point-man Giovanni Paglia said on Sunday that too many people on the right have discovered the Constitutional right to freedom of expression in defending an anti-gay general who has been sacked for airing his views in a self-published book.
“If the lowest staffer on the smallest Italian town council writes a comment that they don’t agree with, the right asks for his immediate sacking and stoning,” Paglia said.
“But if an army general launches a homophobic, sexist, racist and antisemitic crusaded, in this country it can happen that too many exponents of the right in government discover freedom of expression.”
“... the reality is that they share (his views) word for word.”
ANSA
