A fight between parliamentarians broke out in the Chamber on 12 June, the day on which the Chamber’s work on differentiated autonomy should have continued. The M5s deputy paid the consequences, Leonardo Donno, hit, according to the stories of some parliamentarians, with two punches in the head. The intervention of doctors was necessary and they took Donno out of the courtroom in a wheelchair. Examining the videos will clarify how the events actually took place.
What has been understood so far, also by observing the videos that immediately went viral, is that the fight broke out after the five-star deputy had tried to bring the tricolor to the Minister for Regional Affairs and Autonomies Roberto Calderoli, a gesture censured by the President of the Chamber Lorenzo Fontana with the expulsion. Several deputies surrounded him and a fight broke out. The session was suspended.
In addition to M5s MP Donno, a parliamentary assistant was also involved, hit in the face and stomach, his colleagues report. He was carried by arm to the infirmary.
Today, at the resumption of work on Autonomy, the oppositions followed one another with very harsh interventions contesting the report which described the events that occurred as “unrest”. The Chamber finally rejected the proposal put forward by the oppositions and formalized by the parent company Chiara Braga to amend the minutes of the opposition on yesterday’s session on differentiated autonomy, with a 42 vote difference. The session was suspended after the vote. A meeting of the Bureau of the Chamber has been called for 1pm.
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Brawl in the House, 12 June 2024
The story of the facts
Donno he announced that he was fine after an electrocardiogram and explained the dynamics: “I took a punch that grazed my face from deputy Iezzi, others tried like Mollicone, Amich, Cangiano. Then many others arrived, the shop assistants….I collapsed, I felt pain in my chest and I was struggling to breathe.” The Northern League member Iezzi instead he denies it: “I tried to punch him, but I didn’t hit him. Donno tried to attack Calderoli and I reacted. I moved away and then he fell. His act should be condemned”.
The FdI deputy also comes out Enzo Amich: “I absolutely didn’t punch Donno. I think he wasn’t even touched because from the images you can see that he had all the people in front of him, perhaps in the fray, in dividing him, he perceived those as blows”, he explains and adds: “There was simply a provocation on the part of Donno, who went down among the benches with the Tricolor to meet a 75-year-old man, who is the minister, and this is still a lack of respect”.
“The brawl broke out in an instrumental manner on the part of an M5S deputy: in an outrageous manner he wanted to wrap Minister Calderoli in the tricolour. At that point the brawl broke out but no one had the opportunity to come into contact with him because he was surrounded by parliamentary assistants So the hypothesis is that it was a stunt to throw himself on the ground and fake an illness”, he said Federico MolliconeFdi deputy, telling journalists on the transatlantic his version of the brawl that took place in the chamber during the examination of the bill.
Chairs thrown and riots
After the big brawl involving the M5S deputy Leonardo Donno and some parliamentarians from the Lega and Fratelli d’Italia, Fdi denounced ‘beatings’ from the opposition and in particular from the Democratic Party. Fabio Pietrella of Fratelli d’Italia tells reporters: “I was trying to calm things down with Gnassi, I stopped Toni Ricciardi of the Democratic Party. And as soon as I stopped him he gave me two crutches on my chest.” Another dem representative, Nico Stumpo, was expelled for throwing a chair. The confirmation comes directly from the president of the session, Sergio Costa: “Yes, I expelled him because he threw a chair. Against the government benches? Yes, but as a symbolic gesture, not against a person”.
From the beginning the discussion had become heated and the session had already been suspended several times. In the Chamber, tricolor flags were displayed and the Mameli anthem was mentioned while some deputies occupied the government benches shouting “shame”. The session was immediately adjourned. Just before leaving the Chamber some parliamentarians chanted “Bella ciao”. The President of the Chamber Lorenzo Fontana then suspended the session again and called some deputies to order: “We will take measures”, he assured amidst the shouts of the opposition parliamentarians.
Then he expelled Domenico Furgiuele (Lega), accused of having made the X Mas gesture while the opposition was singing Bella ciao. The opposition have long shouted ‘out, out’, accusing their colleague from the Northern League of having made “the Tenth sign, crossing his arms”. When work resumed, Fontana explained that he had reviewed the video of what happened and expelled Furgiuele. “For everything else – he said, referring to what happened in the Chamber between the Tricolori, the Italian anthem, ‘Bella ciao’ and the protests – we will carry out an investigation.
Furgiuele denies the accusation. “The X with my hands? I did it to say that I don’t like Bella bye,” she told reporters. “It’s all very strange, it’s this world of political correctness for which you can sing Bella ciao in the Chamber of the Chamber and perhaps you can’t say that this song isn’t shared and isn’t liked. And someone can even make a gesture, outclassed by voices, to say ‘no, I don’t like it’. It’s misunderstood because you can’t make a gesture…”. “Everyone can interpret what they want. It was my intention to express something negative compared to what the opposition was singing”, explained the Northern League representative.
Chamber, Opposition protest against the reform of undifferentiated autonomy, 12 June 2024
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