Prodi says critics 'confuse affection for aggression'

(ANSA) - ROME, MAR 26 - Romano Prodi said Wednesday critics of his gesture to a Mediaset journalist Monday were "getting affection mixed up with aggression" after the two-time former centre-left premier and ex European Commission chief apparently tugged her hair in irritation at what he saw as an importunate question on the Ventotene Manifesto amid a row between the opposition and Premier Giorgia Meloni on the foundational document of the 'United States of Europe'.
    "Time clarifies many things. Affection is exchanged for aggression," said the 85-year-old 'Professor' after meeting Euroepan Parliament President Roberta Metsola in Brussels.
    The incident occurred after Lavinia Orefici, a journalist from the Quarta Repubblica show on Mediaset, asked Prodi to comment on a part of the Ventotene Manifesto Meloni read out in parliament outraging the opposition, about the abolition of private property.
    A video of the exchange clearly shows the clearly irked academic turned politician gently tugging at a lock of Orefici's hair before telling her she did not have any "sense of history".
    Meloni last week also cited the manifesto's call for the temporary suspension of democracy to set up a Socialist federal super state in declaring, to the rage of the opposition, that !this is not my Europe".
    The opposition subsequently made a pilgrimage to Ventotene, the former prison island where anti-fascist prisoners like the drafters of the manifesto were held, and laid a wreath at the tomb of one of them, Altiero Spinelli.
    The other two leftist political prisoners who are now revered as among the 'founding fathers' of the EU were Ernesto Rossi and Eugenio Colorni.
    Amid rising calls for him to apologise for pulling Orefici's hair, Prodi insisted: "I have nothing to clarify, you know what an excellent relationship I have with journalists, but if they want to create an incident against an old professor, then go ahead." Journalists union FNSI characterised the incident as a "dangerous lack of respect for those who are making information".
    TV unions including that of state broadcaster Rai also asked Prodi for an apology. (ANSA).