Italian Prime Minister Giorgio Meloni sues historian who called her a ‘neo-Nazi at heart’

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Rome:

An Italian court on Tuesday approved a new libel case brought by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, this time against a historian who said the far-right leader was “new at heart” Nazis”.

Luciano Canfora, an 81-year-old left-wing classicist, made the remarks during a school debate in Bari, southern Italy, in April 2022, six months after the leader of the Italian fraternity He took office after winning the sexual election.

The trial is scheduled to begin on October 7.

Meloni successfully sued journalist Roberto Saviano last year for criticizing her stance on immigration in December 2020, and an Italian court imposed a suspended fine of €1,000 on him.

She also filed a lawsuit against the lead singer of British rock band Placebo after he called her a “racist” and “fascist” during a July 2023 show in Italy.

Meloni posted a video of Canfora’s speech on Facebook and posted a comment denouncing his “unacceptable comments,” which she said amounted to “vulgar propaganda for young students.”

Canfora, a former professor of Greek and Latin linguistics at the University of Bari and well-known in Italy, told AFP in an interview ahead of a court hearing in Bari on Tuesday that he had no remorse.

“When you say neo-Nazis, you don’t think of people who are committing crimes or murdering people, you think of people who still have some ideas, some mental attitudes that harken back to the past,” Canfora said.

He noted that Meloni wrote in her 2021 autobiography “I Am Georgia” that she “took over the baton” from Italy’s postwar far-right leaders, including Giorgio Armirante.

Almirante was one of the founders of the now-defunct Italian Social Movement (MSI), a party formed after World War II by supporters of fascist dictator Benito Mussolini.

He was also an official in the wartime Nazi-controlled puppet state of the Italian Social Republic (RSI).

Meloni’s Italian brother is a political descendant of the MSI, although she told parliament when she took office that she had “never felt sympathy or affinity for undemocratic regimes…including fascism”.

Canfora received support from many Italian and foreign intellectuals in his struggle, and the French left-wing newspaper Libération organized a petition in his support.

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