President Sergio Mattarella on Friday
expressed solidarity for Premier Giorgia Meloni after a
mannequin resembling the leader of the right-wing Brothers of
Italy (FdI) party was burned at a march in Rome.
The incident took place on Thursday in the capital's Montesacro
quarter during a commemoration for a left-wing militant killed
in 1980 during Italy's 'Years of Lead' of political violence.
"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.
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