Europe's news in English

COPY LINK

POLITICS

Italy MP confuses Jim Morrison for Slavic thief

Maurizio Gasparri, the gaffe-prone vice-president of the Italian Senate, has come under fire after taking an ironic photo showing 'The Doors' frontman Jim Morrison depicted as a Slavic criminal terrorizing Italy at face value.

Published: 11 January 2016 12:06 CET

Italy MP confuses Jim Morrison for Slavic thief

Italian politician Maurizio Gasparri has been criticized after mistaking Jim Morrison for a Slavic criminal. Photo: Wikimedia

The picture was generated by the satirical Facebook group, Virgona Finiamola Fate Girare (Shameful, let's put an end to this, please share), which makes comedic memes expressing mock-political outrage.

Last week, the group published a rare black and white picture of a bearded, long-haired Jim Morrison taken after he was arrested in Miami following a fight in 1970, with the following caption above the photo:

“This is Goran Hadzic, he has committed more that 50 robberies in the northeast of the country but every time he is caught he is released.”

Beneath it, they wrote: “ENOUGH! SEND HIM HOME!! RENZI OUT!!”

One member of the Facebook group, Piero Merola, then tweeted the picture to Gasparri on Saturday evening, asking him,”What do you think of this, the latest Italian scandal? Please save us from this government.”

Missing the irony of the post, the politician for the Forza Italia party, responded: “That is an embarrassment,” a response which was extensively shared and ridiculed across the Twitter-verse.

“The Vice-President of the Senate thinks Jim Morrison is a Slavic thief,” wrote an incredulous Nicola Chiappinelli.

Tutto normale: secondo il vice-presidente del Senato #Gasparri, Jim Morrison è un rapinatore slavo via @pieromerola pic.twitter.com/2aBjldFsTD

— Nicola Chiappinelli (@NicKiappa) January 10, 2016

The creator of the Facebook group responsible for the image, Claudia Vanco, said in a post via her LinkedIn page that the group's aim is to “poke fun at the creation of political memes and show how easy it is for people to be taken in by them because of culture gaps and a lack of investigation”.

The group was quick to thank Gasparri for falling for the image in a satirical message which they published on Facebook.

“At least all of our politicians aren't indifferent. Thanks to the Honorable Member of Parliament Gasparri!”

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.

Become a Member to leave a comment.

Italian PM Meloni to stand in EU Parliament elections

Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party, which has neo-Fascist roots, came top in Italy’s 2022 general election with 26 percent of the vote.

It is polling at similar levels ahead of the European elections on from June 6-9.

With Meloni heading the list of candidates, Brothers of Italy could exploit its national popularity at the EU level, even though EU rules require that any winner already holding a ministerial position must immediately resign from the EU assembly.

“We want to do in Europe exactly what we did in Italy on September 25, 2022 — creating a majority that brings together the forces of the right to finally send the left into opposition, even in Europe!” Meloni told a party event in the Adriatic city of Pescara.

In a fiery, sweeping speech touching briefly on issues from surrogacy and Ramadan to artificial meat, Meloni extolled her coalition government’s one-and-a-half years in power and what she said were its efforts to combat illegal immigration, protect families and defend Christian values.

After speaking for over an hour in the combative tone reminiscent of her election campaigns, Meloni said she had decided to run for a seat in the European Parliament.

READ ALSO: How much control does Giorgia Meloni’s government have over Italian media?

“I’m doing it because I want to ask Italians if they are satisfied with the work we are doing in Italy and that we’re doing in Europe,” she said, suggesting that only she could unite Europe’s conservatives.

“I’m doing it because in addition to being president of Brothers of Italy I’m also the leader of the European conservatives who want to have a decisive role in changing the course of European politics,” she added.

In her rise to power, Meloni, as head of Brothers of Italy, often railed against the European Union, “LGBT lobbies” and what she has called the politically correct rhetoric of the left, appealing to many voters with her straight talk.

“I am Giorgia, I am a woman, I am a mother, I am Italian, I am a Christian” she famously declared at a 2019 rally.

She used a similar tone Sunday, instructing voters to simply write “Giorgia” on their ballots.

“I have always been, I am, and will always be proud of being an ordinary person,” she shouted.

EU rules require that “newly elected MEP credentials undergo verification to ascertain that they do not hold an office that is incompatible with being a Member of the European Parliament,” including being a government minister.

READ ALSO: Why is Italy’s government being accused of helping tax dodgers?

The strategy has been used before, most recently in Italy in 2019 by Meloni’s deputy prime minister, Matteo Salvini, who leads the far-right Lega party.

The EU Parliament elections do not provide for alliances within Italy’s parties, meaning that Brothers of Italy will be in direct competition with its coalition partners Lega and Forza Italia, founded by Silvio Berlusconi.

The Lega and Forza Italia are polling at about seven percent and eight percent, respectively.

Url copied to clipboard!