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“What happened to me is an absolute disgrace. A three-on-one attack, three men against a woman. They shouted ‘f***ing fascist’ at me and then threw me to the ground.” Anna Maniscalchi, activist for animal welfare and candidate for the Prato city council for the League, struggles to hold back her tears as she talks about the serious episode of violence that saw her – despite herself – as the protagonist this morning . “I was in the Galceti area, it was around 11am, and I was handing out leaflets for the electoral campaign. While I was talking to a passer-by with a dog, I noticed three people of African origin behind us who were listening to the conversation. A conversation which, once finished, it was followed by the attack of these subjects, who were waiting for me at the car in the parking lot of the Galceti park, near the Bardena stream. I think they were also dealing.”
Maniscalchi didn’t have time to get into the car and was knocked to the ground by the three foreigners. “And in the meantime they called me ‘a woman and a fucking fascist’. Then they went away and left me there. Fortunately a gentleman helped me, explaining to me that there are really bad people in that area, especially in the evening hours. The police – continues the testimony of the 58-year-old – were immediately notified and arrived on site immediately afterwards”.
The candidate subsequently went to the emergency room of the Santo Stefano hospital in Prato, where she was treated. “In the fall I got a bad wound in the sacrum area. I will have to rest for a while, but I even struggle to sit up. Obviously – continues Maniscalchi – I filed a complaint with the Digos. They were terrible moments and I had really scared: it could have been decidedly worse. I think it was a cowardly and completely unmotivated act. But I certainly won’t give up and this event won’t stop me.”
The message of solidarity towards Maniscalchi from MEP Susanna Ceccardi was not long in coming. “It is inconceivable that in 2024, in Italy, a candidate will be insulted and beaten because she freely carries forward her political ideas. There is a bad climate in this electoral campaign – states the representative of the League – a poisoned climate also due to the fact that there is a part of the left that tends to demonize the opponent in a vulgar and irresponsible way. And this demonization makes simple criminals and extremist political fringes feel entitled to commit any atrocity, like that of which Anna Lei was the victim and all our other candidates from the League in Prato are in the field precisely to make a change in terms of security and legality in the city”.
