FOGGIA – Yesterday from the stage on May 1st in Foggia one of the artists who performed, the Foggia rapper Gennarone, accused Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni of having brought the “spectre of fascism” back to Italy and also offended her by using sexist. In addition to hundreds of citizens, some representatives of local institutions also attended the concert. «I apologize if I offended anyone’s sensitivity – the rapper says today – but my words were more aimed at fascism. They were an artistic provocation. What is happening in Italy seems abnormal to me, especially from a Prime Minister who does not openly declare herself anti-fascist and passes laws that gag the press and reduce freedom regarding abortion. It’s a very delicate historical period and if we artists don’t talk about it, each through our own form, who should do it.”
Gennarone claims to have gone on stage a couple of hours after the start of the concert and to have underlined in his opening speech the need to shed four tears. “The first for all the peoples at war in every corner of the world – he recalls – the second for the workers, especially for those who lose their lives in the workplace, especially the young people who died during school-work alternation courses; the third for the our Italy which is experiencing the shadow of fascism thanks to Giorgia Meloni – and at this point the word for which I apologize – and the fourth for our city of Foggia gripped by an underworld that suffocates it”.
The young rapper maintains that the city must show its high civic sense «not being scandalized by a word that was certainly not intended to be offensive towards the president and women in general, but by all the episodes of crime that occur and that turn off the future”.
(the video was reshared in the same artist’s Instagram stories)
FDI PUGLIA: DISTURBING
«What happened yesterday during the concert on May 1st in Foggia is disconcerting. The ignoble vulgarity of the sentence uttered against Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni by a person who went on stage to perform is a real act of violence against which we expect the organisers, the mayor and the municipal councilors present at the event to distance themselves ». This was stated by the regional councilors of Fratelli d’Italia Puglia, Francesco Ventola, Luigi Caroli, Giannicola De Leonardis, Antonio Gabellone, Renato Perrini and Michele Picaro, regarding the words used by the rapper Gennarone.
“The sexist insults and the usual old story of evoking the specter of fascism are a clear demonstration of the climate of tension that certain minority and violent fringes want to instill in a country which, it is worth remembering, is democratic”, continue the regional councilors.
«We express our closeness and solidarity with Giorgia Meloni – they conclude – with the awareness of being proudly on the side of those who practice democratic life in the present and constantly projected towards the future, rather than spreading vulgar violence while sadly living with their own lucubrations and frustrations».
THE FDI COMPLAINT
A complaint for contempt of the institutions was presented by the provincial manager of the legality and safety department of FdI in the province of Foggia, Daria Cascarano, regarding the sexist insults uttered by the rapper Gennarone last night on the stage of the concert on May 1st in Foggia.
The complaint was formalized late in the morning to the Foggia police. «I filed a complaint as a private citizen who felt offended by the words spoken last night, and as head of the legality department I feel the need to act even more – explains Cascarano -. If the host of the evening or a representative of the city government had dissociated himself at the time from the words spoken from the stage, it is likely that I would not have filed any complaint.”
Cascarano underlines how «it is strictly necessary to understand that rappers, singers, artists in general are teachers for our children and must set an example. A double offense took place last night. To the prime minister as such and as a woman and therefore towards all women. Young people have unfortunately lost respect for women, teachers and institutions. So it is up to us adults and anyone with a role of responsibility to pay particular attention to the messages and words they convey.”
«If no one immediately dissociated themselves – concludes Cascarano – I believe that those words were shared. We must all be very attentive to the influence that we adults have on young people.”
