Insults and vulgarity distort election campaigns says Mattarella

(ANSA) - ROME, FEB 23 - President Sergio Mattarella on Friday slammed "intolerable" manifestations of violence during election campaigns, saying they mortify and distort the results.
    "We are witnessing an intolerable series of manifestations of violence: insults, vulgar language, speeches devoid of content but full of verbal aggression, even effigies burned or vilified, several times even of the Prime Minister herself, to whom full solidarity must be expressed,"Mattarella told students at the Quirinale palace in Rome.
    "Political confrontation, the contraposition of ideas and proposals, competition, including electoral competition, are mortified and distorted as a result," he continued.
    Consequently, Mattarella said "the dignity of politics disappears, supplanted by events that represent its negation".
    "I hope that politics will always and as quickly as possible reassert its authenticity, in its most noble forms," he added.
    This year Italians will be called to vote in local elections in over 3,700 towns and cities including six regional capitals, regional elections in five regions and European parliamentary elections.
    The first appointment with the ballot box is for regional elections in Sardinia on Sunday. (ANSA).