Anti-migrant and homophobic bestseller by former commander splits Italy’s Right-wing coalition
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
A best-selling homophobic and anti-migrant book written by a former head of Italian special forces has caused fractures in the Right-wing governing coalition led by Giorgia Meloni, the prime minister.
While some ministers have distanced themselves from the book by 54-year-old General Roberto Vannacci, a paratrooper, others have applauded him and defended his right to express his opinions, however offensive they might be.
The book, entitled The World Back to Front, caused a furore when it was published last week, espousing extreme views on a wide range of subjects.
It was interpreted as being hostile to a broad spectrum of society, from gay people and feminists to migrants and environmentalists.
The general, a veteran of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, wrote that homosexuals are not “normal” and condemned what he described as the “dictatorship of minorities” and “the international gay lobby”.
“You are not normal, come to terms with it,” he wrote, adding that “normality is heterosexuality”.
The book’s release led to General Vannacci, a former commander of Italy’s elite parachute regiment, being dismissed from his role as head of the Military Geographical Institute, a job he took up in June.
But his treatment has split the governing coalition. Some senior government figures, including Matteo Salvini, the deputy prime minister, have defended the general.
Mr Salvini, who is the head of the hard-Right League party, said he would buy the book, which has become a bestseller on Amazon, and had a “very cordial” telephone conversation with the general on Monday.
But Guido Crosetto, the defence minister and one of the founding members of Ms Meloni’s hard-Right Brothers of Italy party, said “the personal ramblings of a general” had discredited Italy’s armed forces.
Antonio Tajani, the foreign minister and deputy prime minister, criticised the book and said the general should have shown more “prudence” before expressing such inflammatory opinions.
Opposition parties meanwhile demanded that Ms Meloni, who has been on holiday in Puglia in southern Italy with her partner and young daughter, clearly state her view on the controversy.
It has been a tough summer for Ms Meloni, who was elected as Italy’s first female prime minister last autumn.
Despite her government’s tough rhetoric on stopping migrant boats coming from North Africa, arrivals are at a record level.
So far this year, 105,000 asylum seekers have reached Italian shores, compared with 50,000 in the same period last year and 35,000 in the equivalent period in 2021.
High number of migrants
In cities and towns across the country, mayors of all political stripes are in revolt over the high number of migrants that they are being told to accommodate.
Luca Zaia, the right-wing governor of Veneto, said the migrant reception system is close to collapse.
He said Italy had for years been left to deal with the problem on its own, criticising the lack of solidarity from the EU.
“The EU regards Lampedusa as the frontier of Italy – not the frontier of Europe,” Mr Zaia told the Corriere della Sera newspaper, citing the southern island that has become one of the main landing points for people trying to get into Europe.
“It would be good if the ladies and gentlemen of the EU came back from their holidays in a hurry, there is much to do. We cannot have the whole of Africa moving to Italy. This is not a racist thing to say. It is an objective fact,” he added.
In an interview with a weekly magazine published on Tuesday, Ms Meloni said that being prime minister was akin to being on a non-stop roller-coaster.
“It’s like being on a roller-coaster 24 hours a day. Every day is a challenge and managing to keep everything together is really difficult,” she told Chi.
“Sometimes you get the desire to get off that roller-coaster, to stop for a moment and get back to normal. But it is a thought that only lingers in your mind for a few moments and then it vanishes. Because you know that what you are doing has a purpose, a greater meaning.”
