Professor Luciano Canfora has been indicted for defamation by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. This was established today, 16 April, by the single judge of the Court of Bari Antonietta Guerra at the end of the council chamber, following this morning’s pre-trial hearing.
As the historian’s defense lawyer, Michele Laforgia, explained to journalists, the judge “found that it is necessary to carry out a thorough evidential integration incompatible with the pre-trial hearing, ordered the postponement of the trial before the trial judge, Dr. Santoro, for the hearing on 7 October”.
What Canfora said
The facts contested in Canfora date back to April 2022 when the leader of the Brothers of Italy was not yet prime minister. The university teacher in a conference on the war between Russia and Ukraine held in a scientific high school in Bari defined the then leader of Fdi during a conference in a school, “neo-Nazi at heart”while talking about the war in Ukraine.
Supporters in the streets for the prof.
Canfora was present in the courtroom today. When he arrived at the court he found a group of supporters welcoming him.
Meloni asks for 20 thousand euros in compensation
The Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, in the declaration of civil action, asked the intellectual for damages of 20 thousand euros.
The defense: “No defamatory intent from Canfora”
“The meaning of the intervention, acceptable or not – we read in one of the passages of the defense statement presented by Laforgia – is clear and does not lend itself to interpretative misunderstandings: according to the accused, the support for Ukraine would have allowed the Honorable Meloni , usually marginalized and denigrated, to also gain recognition at an international level as an authoritative and reliable political figure. The anything but defamatory sense of the expressions used by Professor Canfora is therefore evident, not to express his own opinion regarding the plaintiff, but rather to describe. – critically – the attitude of the political forces and the main commentators of the mainstream media towards him, before and after the position taken on the war in Ukraine”.
“Description, however, completely in line with reality, if we take into account the way in which Giorgia Meloni was defined by the foreign press (the German magazine Stern dedicated a cover to her on 22.9.2022 with the title ‘Die Gefährlichste Frau Europas’, or ‘The most dangerous woman in Europe’) and by political opponents, as also reported by newspapers in the centre-right area”, adds the lawyer.
The reference is to the passage in Canfora’s speech in which the university professor criticizes NATO’s unconditional support for Ukraine, “and the position subsequently taken by the Honorable Giorgia Meloni, at the time of the events, prior to the last political elections and to the formation of the current government, only president of the Fratelli d’Italia party, Professor Canfora, as shown by the video acquired in the documents and still available online, stated the following verbatim: “I do not see, in the political alignment of our country, forces capable of saying ‘I want to understand’. Even the terrible – and always insulted, poor thing! – leader of that right-wing party called ‘Brothers of Italy’ – as if in France there was ‘La Marseillaise’ as a political party – usually treated like a lunatic, very dangerous, etc., – since – being a neo-Nazi at heart – she immediately sided with the Ukrainian neo-Nazis, became a very important stateswoman and is naturally very happy with this role'”.
“The possibility of the crime being configured in relation to the expressions “poor thing” – or rather, “always insulted, poor thing!” – continues the memoir – must therefore certainly be excluded. – and “treated like a lunatic”, objectively devoid, in the context in which they were pronounced, of any concrete offensiveness towards the Hon. Meloni, resulting, if anything, criticism towards some of his detractors, according to Prof. Canfora prone to the attacks. desired by NATO and the United States”.
Tags: Nazi melons soul Luciano Canfora trial defamation
