From classes for disabled people to Benito Mussolini “statesman”, up to the Italians who “have white skin”. The interview given to the Press by the general, Roberto Vannacci, fresh from his candidacy with the League, explodes on the weekend chosen by Fratelli d’Italia to launch the challenge of the European elections. And he ends up stealing the show. “The right now proposes separate classes for disabled people. Then what? Shall we put an armband on them?”, accuses the Democratic Party. The unease is palpable, both within Matteo Salvini’s party and among his allies. The Minister of Education, Giuseppe Valditara, must remember the concrete policies put in place to the inclusion of disabled people. The owner of the Economy, Giancarlo Giorgetti, points out that Vannacci is not from the League: “I don’t agree with his positions”, he replies bluntly.
“Ruminations from Captain Fracassa which there really wasn’t a need for”, lashes out the Italian player Paolo Barelli. Thus, after hours of controversy, the person concerned intervenes on social media: “The title completely distorts my words with which I forcefully assert that disabled people need special attention and additional and non-additional help that must be separated. The electoral campaign has begun!”. A post deleted shortly after and replaced with the phrase “The articles must be read without stopping at the headlines”. The League, which already has to face internal discontent over the general’s candidacy, tries to stem it: Vannacci ” he is an independent candidate who will be able to make his own contribution and collect opinion votes outside the traditional pool” of the party. In the “competitive and high-value lists” closed by Matteo Salvini “there is no shortage of true Northern League members, outgoing MEPs and exponents of civil society “, point out sources on via Bellerio. Which, however, do not go into the merits of the general’s observations. But the embarrassment of several Northern League members is clear.
“I don’t agree with anything he said, it speaks for itself”, says a parliamentarian with the microphones turned off. While another points out: “His positions are known. So much media coverage for him, and therefore for the League, is a favor.” Is this Salvini’s strategy? Catalyze, between now and the European elections, the entire public debate to intercept those 800 thousand additional votes? The allies question themselves but, in the meantime, they are forced to comment, to take a position. “We are poles apart“, says the Minister of Sport Andrea Abodi from Pescara. “To encourage integration it is good that there is a mix and that people are used to being with those who have differences”, echoes the head of the Family, Eugenia Roccella. While the group leader of FdI in the Chamber, Tommaso Foti, and the head of Tourism, Daniela Santanchè, do not comment but distance themselves.
For Fratelli d’Italia they are a source of embarrassment also the general’s utterances about Mussolini as a “statesman”, made precisely in the days in which the opposition is asking Giorgia Meloni for a clearer renunciation of fascism, like that made at the time by the leader of the Italian right Gianfranco Fini. But it is, without a doubt, the topic of disability that is the most controversial: “These statements take us back to the darkest periods of our history”, comments the vice-president of the Italian Episcopal Conference, Monsignor Francesco Savino.
Thus, the Minister of Education, Giuseppe Valditara, must intervene, who, although never mentioning the interview, recalls the interventions implemented on the disability front: from the over “13 thousand support teachers hired in September” to the “obligation for support teachers hired in the role to remain in the chair for three years”. Oppositions arise. According to Benedetto Della Vedova of Più Europa “Vannacci’s fascist and reactionary delusions qualify not only the League but also the centre-right”. “They echo concepts in vogue during a historical period called Nazism“, adds the IV coordinator, Raffaella Paita. The M5s expresses concern through the voice of the vice president of the Chamber Sergio Costa and the rights manager, Alessandra Maiorino, according to which in the end “the most severe judgment will come” from the base of the League. While the rights manager of the Democratic Party, Alessandro Zan, draws up a list: “Segregation for people with disabilities. Ethnicity as a qualifying element. The visibility of LGBTQIA+ people as guilt. Mussolini as statesman. We have to stop them.”
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