Salvini says will buy anti-gay general's book

(ANSA) - ROME, AUG 22 - Deputy Premier, Transport Minister and rightwing League party leader Matteo Salvini has said he will buy a book by an Italian army general which has caused a free-speech row because it castigates gays, Jews, feminists, environmentalists and migrants.
    Speaking after a "very cordial" phonecall with General Roberto Vannacci Monday, Salvini said: "(the general) must be judged for what he does on duty, and if he then writes something that has nothing to do with his work he has every right to do so".
    Vannacci was replaced as head of the military geographical institute by his superior officer amid the furore over his book after Defence Minister Guido Crosetti, a heavyweight in Premier Giorgia Meloni's rightwing Bothers of Italy (FdI) party, ordered disciplinary action against him.
    Many members of FdI and the League have defended the general's right to say what he thinks under the Constitution's free-speech principles.
    The opposition has urged FdI leader Meloni to say what she thinks of the row. (ANSA).