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Italian PM Meloni and sister sue rock band and cartoonist

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and her sister Arianna both filed defamation lawsuits this week – the former against the lead singer of rock band Placebo, the latter against a newspaper cartoonist.

Published: 4 August 2023 15:53 CEST
Placebo lead singer
Placebo lead singer Brian Molko is being sued by Italian PM Giorgia Meloni over insults uttered during a performance in Italy in mid-July. Photo by Guillaume SOUVANT / AFP

Meloni, leader of the Brothers of Italy party, is suing Placebo frontman Brian Molko after he called her “racist”, “fascist” and a “piece of shit” during a performance in Italy in July.

READ ALSO: Italy investigates Placebo frontman over calling Giorgia Meloni ‘fascist’

Meloni’s older sister Arianna, who may run in next year’s European parliament elections for Brothers of Italy according to media reports, is meanwhile suing the cartoonist for the left-wing Fatto Quotidiano daily.

Mario Natangelo published his cartoon and a partial copy of the police report on Instagram on Friday, saying he would not comment on the case.

“I prefer to let my cartoons speak for me. And my lawyers”, he said.

His drawing depicts Arianna Meloni, who is also the wife of Agriculture Minister Francesco Lollobrigida, in bed with a black man.

In the cartoon, the man asks Meloni, “what about your husband?”, to which she replies: “Don’t worry, he spends his days out fighting ethnic replacement”.

It appeared to be a reference to comments made by Lollobrigida, a close ally of Prime Minister Meloni, in April about the “ethnic replacement” of Italians by migrants.

READ ALSO: Second Italian minister takes anti-mafia reporter Saviano to court

Brothers of Italy rose to power in elections last year on a strongly nativist, anti-immigrant platform, and Meloni has repeatedly and explicitly promoted the so-called great replacement theory, a conspiracy theory endorsed by the extreme and radical right in many countries worldwide.

Meloni has repeatedly denied accusations that Brothers of Italy is a “fascist” party, despite it being a descendent of the neofascist Italian Social Movement founded by supporters of dictator Benito Mussolini after the Second World War.

Meloni has also used Italy’s anti-defamation laws to sue prominent journalist Roberto Saviano for calling her a “bastard” in a television interview in 2020, much to the alarm of press freedom watchdogs.

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EU

Italy’s Meloni hopes EU ‘understands message’ from voters

Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said Saturday she hoped the European Union would understand the "message" sent by voters in last weekend's elections, after far-right parties such as hers made gains.

Published: 15 June 2024 17:33 CEST
Italy's Meloni hopes EU 'understands message' from voters

Meloni, head of the post-fascist Brothers of Italy party, which performed particularly well in the vote, urged the EU to “understand the message that has come from European citizens”.

“Because if we want to draw lessons from the vote that everything was fine, I fear it would be a slightly distorted reading,” she told a press conference at the end of a G7 summit in Puglia.

“European citizens are calling for pragmatism, they are calling for an approach that is much less ideological on several major issues,” she said.

Meloni’s right-wing government coalition has vehemently opposed the European Green Deal and wants a harder stance on migration.

“Citizens vote for a reason. It seems to me that a message has arrived, and it has arrived clearly,” she said.

EU leaders will meet in Brussels on Monday to negotiate the top jobs, including whether European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen will get a second term.

Von der Leyen’s centre-right European People’s Party strengthened its grip with the vote, but her reconfirmation is not yet in the bag.

The 65-year-old conservative was in Puglia for the G7 and likely used the summit to put her case to the leaders of France, Germany and Italy.

But Meloni refused to be drawn on whom she is backing.

“We will have a meeting on Monday, we’ll see,” she told journalists.

“We will also see what the evaluations will be on the other top roles,” she said.

Italian political watchers say Meloni is expected to back von der Leyen, but is unlikely to confirm that openly until Rome locks in a deal on commissioner jobs.

“What interests me is that… Italy is recognised for the role it deserves,” she said.

“I will then make my assessments.”

Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani indicated that it was unlikely any decision would be made before the French elections on June 30 and July 7.

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