Giorgia Meloni has finally spoken out about the anti-Semitic and racist remarks made by activists from her party’s youth movement. The head of the Italian government condemned, on Friday, June 28, the discriminatory and insulting remarks made by supporters of the Gioventu Nazionale (National Youth) revealed in a report made with a hidden camera. She also pointed out the way in which the journalists from the Backstair investigative unit of the online media outlet Fanpage, which carried out the investigation, acted.
In this report, several activists of the National Youth, a movement affiliated with Fratelli d’Italia (FdI), the post-fascist party co-founded by Giorgia Meloni in 2012, make insulting remarks about Jews and people of color. Others make the fascist salute, chanting ” Sieg Heil “ (a Nazi salute) or “Duke, Duke, Duke” in reference to the fascist dictator Benito Mussolini.
Following these revelations, which sparked indignation among part of the political class, two leaders of the movement resigned. Giorgia Meloni, who had not initially spoken out on the subject. She then took a stand after the publication, on Thursday, June 27, of the second part of the investigation in which activists mock Ester Mieli, FdI senator and former spokesperson for the Jewish community of Rome.
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“This is undercover journalism”
Mme Meloni therefore wanted to clarify things on the sidelines of the European Council in Brussels (Belgium). “Anyone who expresses racist, anti-Semitic or nostalgic ideas has come to the wrong house, because these ideas are incompatible with Fratelli d’Italia”she assured the Italian press on Friday, June 28. “There is no ambiguity on my part on this subject”she added, before attacking the journalists.
He did not really like the journalistic methods used to produce the report. “Why, in the seventy-five years of the history of the Republic, has no one attempted to infiltrate a political party by secretly filming its meetings?” “Because they are diet methods” authoritarian, she denounced. A Fanpage journalist defended his accusations. “This is undercover journalism”he clarified.
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As a teenager, Georgia Meloni was active in the youth wing of the Italian Social Movement, formed by Mussolini supporters after World War II. The most right-wing leader in Italy since 1945, she has tried to distance herself from her party’s legacy, without completely abandoning it. In particular, she has kept the tricolour flame in its logo, which inspired Frenchman Jean-Marie Le Pen when he created his National Front (now the National Rally) in 1972.
