Salvini makes 'v.cordial' phonecall to anti-gay general

(ANSA) - ROME, AUG 21 - Deputy Premier, Transport Minister and rightwing League party leader Matteo Salvini on Monday made a "very cordial" phonecall to anti-gay general Roberto Vannacci, League sources said.
    Vannacci, 55, a former paratrooper commander has been replaced as head of the military geographical institute over his self-published book The World Back To Front, which slams gays, Jews, migrants, environmentalists and feminists among others, but insists he has not been removed by Defence Minister Guido Crosetto, a heavyweight in Premier Giorgia Meloni's rightwing Brothers of Italy (FdI) party.
    Many FdI and League officials have defended Vannacci's right to express his views under the Constitution's free-speech provisions.
    The centre-left opposition Democratic Party (PD) has said the general's rights do not extend to denying some people's existence while the Italian Left (SI) has likened FdI members' defence of the general to cult satirical film character Doctor Strangelove's doomed attempts to control his kneejerk Nazi saluting arm.
    "Today there was a phone call, a very cordial one, between Salvini and General Vannacci" said the League sources. (ANSA).