As already on the eve, to take center stage on the first day of G7 is the theme of abortion and the reference to “effective and safe access to voluntary termination of pregnancy”, which disappeared from the draft conclusions complete with accusations against Palazzo Chigi and controversies that are not exactly international. An affair that causes sparks between France And Italywith an open-faced back and forth between Emmanuel Macron And Giorgia Meloni which sets fire to the first day of the summit Fasanoin the province of Brindisi.
“I’m sorry” that there is no word abortion in the final G7 text, the French president said Emmanuel Macron in the evening by answering a question fromHandle on the sidelines of the works. “You know the position of France which has included the right to abortion in the Constitution. It’s not the same sensitivity that exists in your country. France shares a vision of equality between men and women, it is not a vision shared across the political spectrum. I’m sorry but respect because it was the sovereign choice of your people.” Not even an hour passes and the Prime Minister’s vitriolic response arrives: “There is no reason to argue about issues on which we have already agreed for some time. And I think it’s profoundly so wrongin difficult times like these, campaign using a precious forum like the G7″.
A cold response, peppered with other considerations: “La controversy on the presence or absence of the word abortion in the conclusions is totally specious. The conclusions of Borgo Egnazia recall those of Hiroshima, in which we already approved last year the need to guarantee that abortion is ‘safe and legal'”, added Meloni. “It is an established fact and no one has ever asked to take steps backwards on this – he said again – In fact, the conclusions, if they do not introduce new arguments, so as not to be unnecessarily repetitive, simply recall what has already been declared in previous summits”. Already in the morning the White House had made it known that the president of the United States Joe Biden “he does not give in on the issue of rights, he will talk about it with the Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni” in the bilateral meeting scheduled for tomorrow, said the National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan.
Like theHandle confirmed after having seen the draft, the passage – according to the draft developed by the Sherpas but which has yet to pass the final examination of the leaders – reports: “We reiterate our commitments expressed in the final communiqué of the G7 in Hiroshima for universal access , adequate and sustainable to women’s health services, including reproductive rights“. A formulation that does not include the word ‘abortion’, which instead was in the final communiqué of the G7 in Japan. “In the text that will be published tomorrow this is not done no step back” compared to the final statement of the G7 in Hiroshima on the topic of abortion “and nothing was taken away”, they explained Italian sources on the sidelines of the summit talking about “electoral or post-electoral exploitation”.
In the final declaration of the G7 which will be released on Friday “there is an explicit referencea relevant paragraph, to engagements hired in Hiroshima, who therefore all come reconfirmed. It is completely clear that when you make a new declaration you don’t copy what was done the other time because you try to include new things, additional things” Therefore “you will not find the word ‘abortion’ because it is in the part that is recalled,” it was explained. Again: “Where does all this come from mountmore or less exploited? It arises from the fact that when that paragraph was read very late at night – it is explained – there was a proposal to modify those commitments, going well beyond what was written in Hiroshima”. And Italy has never said ‘we don’t want to go further’. It was simply said that, where someone proposed to go further, we would have wanted a balanced text which also concerned other topics.” At that point, “given the late hour – the sources further explain – it was decided to reconfirm the Hiroshima commitments. And they are there, all of them.”
Before Palazzo Chigi arrived with these clarifications, the Minister of Agriculture had also entered the controversy Francesco Lollobrigida, who had proposed a very different reasoning: “If the presidents of the great nations, heads of state and government, have chosen not to include it in the document there will be good reasons not to do so. I don’t know if it was appropriate for a G7 in which the Pope also participates, if they chose not to include it there must be a reason and a more than acceptable reason.” So much so that the opposition had relaunched the accusations against Meloni: “Should we think that, faced with Meloni’s reticence and embarrassment, the words of Minister Lollobrigida should be true?”, the opposition wrote in a note senators of the Democratic Party, who had already asked the prime minister for clarity. “Italy should play a leading role in an international forum such as the G7, the government should promote the country’s image by restoring the authority and profile it has always had at an international level. And instead the Meloni government appears before the other heads of state and government questioning a fundamental right of women such as that of choosing over their own bodies. We can’t do anything about a female prime minister who doesn’t defend the rights of all the other women in this country. A national disgrace, they should apologize to the country,” said the secretary of the Democratic Party Elly Schlein.
