Crosetto calls for 'more appropriate' comments on Vannacci

(ANSA) - ROME, FEB 28 - Defence Minister Guido Crosetto on Wednesday called for "more appropriate" comments on the suspension from duty for 11 months of Italian Army General Roberto Vannacci in relation to publication of his controversial bestseller 'Il Mondo al Contrario' (The World Back To Front) after his cabinet colleague, Deputy Premier and Transport Minister Matteo Salvini, appeared to suggest the decision had been political and motivated by fear.
    "The defence ministry is to issue a statement" on the Vannacci case "explaining to those who are not familiar with the matter that we are talking about proceedings that started months ago, and which take place automatically and are totally beyond input from the political authority because they start from a technical authority," said Crosetto, a top exponent of Premier Giorgia Meloni's rothers of Italy (FdI) party.
    "Once all the information is available, perhaps comments will be more appropriate. As far as I am concerned, I will shortly run out of cheeks to turn," he added.
    Earlier Salvini, the leader of majority partner League, described as "ridiculous" the news of the suspension following disciplinary proceedings launched last year.
    "An investigation a day, the situation is ridiculous: how scary is the General?" said Salvini, who has always defended the 55-year-old former paratrooper commander, on X.
    "Long live freedom of thought and expression, long live the Armed Forces and the Forces of Law and Order, long live men and women who every day defend the honour, freedom and security of Italians," he added.
    In its suspension order the defence ministry reportedly took issue with the "circumstances of the publication of the book", which was not cleared by top brass and claims, among other things, that gays are not normal, espouses the Great Replacement conspiracy theory about mainly Muslim migrants replacing ethnic Italians, saying only white people can be Italian, and lauds stand your ground self-defence laws.
    These allegedly showed a "lack of sense of responsibility" and caused "injury to the principle of neutrality of the Armed Force", "compromising the prestige and reputation of the Administration to which it belongs and generating possible disruptive and divisive emulative effects within the military structure".
    Vannacci has said he intends to appeal against the suspension order to the Lazio Regional Administrative Court on grounds of conflict with the right to freedom of expression guaranteed to all citizens, including military personnel. (ANSA).