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Italian candidate puts naked bum on election poster

A candidate for local elections in Bologna has created controversy in Italy after sharing a home-made election poster online which showed a risqué photo of a female model’s naked behind.

Published: 11 May 2016 10:45 CEST

Italian candidate puts naked bum on election poster

Mario Turrini, who used a photo of a female backside on his campaign poster, is supporting the candidate from the Northern League, whose leader Matteo Salvini is pictured here at a 2015 rally in Bolog

The picture was posted on Facebook on Monday, by Mario Turrini, a non-party candidate at Bologna’s up-coming local elections on June 5th.

Although Turrini is standing on a non-party list, he is supporting Lucia Borgonzoni, a candidate with Italy’s far right Northern League, in her bid to become city mayor.

The provocative poster was made by Turrini himself and contains a picture of a woman wearing a grey top who is naked from the waist down. To the left of the image there is a message reminding people to cast their vote next month.

“The photo is needed to attract your attention, otherwise you would never have read it,” says a note below the message explaining the choice of photo.

After Turrini shared the photo from his Facebook page, plenty of users accused him of being sexist and inappropriate.

Bologna resident Emily M. Clancey said that she felt the image showed how “strongly patriarchal” Italian society could be. Clancey also pointed out that the poster was especially insensitive given that Turrini is backing a female candidate for the mayor’s office.

She the mocked Turrini for spelling the Italian word for ‘otherwise’ (altrimenti) without an ‘l’ on his poster

In wake of the criticism, Turrini put the poster to his Facebook page alongside an apology saying he “had not meant to offend anyone.”

“If I win I’ll publish a picture of the other side,” he added.

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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.

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