Giorgia Meloni’s partner is embroiled in controversy after saying on television that young Italian women who go out at night and get drunk are leaving themselves vulnerable to rape.
Andrea Giambruno, a television presenter who has maintained a low profile since Ms Meloni was elected prime minister last autumn, was accused of victim blaming, with the story ending up on the front pages of major Italian newspapers on Wednesday.
Mr Giambruno, 42, who has a six-year-old daughter with the prime minister, was commenting on a series of shocking sexual assaults and gang rapes against women in Italy this summer.
“If you go out dancing, you have every right to get drunk – there should be no kind of misunderstanding or impediment to this – but if you can avoid getting drunk and losing consciousness, maybe you will avoid ending up in serious situations in which the wolf will find you,” he said while anchoring the television programme Diario del giorno on Monday night.
The remarks prompted anger from female politicians across the political spectrum.
‘Unacceptable to blame the victim’
Elly Schlein, the head of the centre-Left opposition Democratic Party, said that it was “unacceptable to blame the victim”.
Chiara Braga, another member of the Democratic Party, called on Ms Meloni to distance herself from the remarks, which “once again insinuate that at times it is the fault of the woman”.
Chiara Appendino, a former mayor of Turin and a member of the populist Five Star Movement, said: “We have the first female prime minister in Italian history whose propaganda defines her as a woman, a mother and a Christian, so she should distance herself from the very serious remarks of her partner because otherwise her silence means that she’s complicit.”
Politicians on the Right also condemned the remarks. Alessandra Mussolini, an MEP and the granddaughter of fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, accused Mr Giambruno of expressing “medieval” attitudes to women.
“If I want to, I should have the right to walk around with my bum fully on display. There is nothing that can justify a man turning to violence. Rape is rape and if that is not understood then for us women, it’s all over. We should no longer be hearing these things in 2023. This type of mentality is really worrying. It risks undermining years of battling for women’s rights,” she said.
‘Baffled by controversy’
Mr Giambruno said his comments had been misinterpreted and that he was baffled by the controversy, which he found “surreal”.
He pointed out that he had clearly described rape as “deplorable” and rapists as “beasts”.
“I certainly never said that it is legitimate for men to rape women who are drunk,” he told the Corriere della Sera newspaper. His remarks had been exploited as a means of scoring political points against Ms Meloni, who leads a hard-Right coalition, he claimed.
The television show that Mr Giambruno presents was discussing a number of recent rapes and murders, including the alleged gang rape of a 19-year-old woman by seven men in Palermo, Sicily, when he made the controversial remarks.
In a crime-plagued town near Naples, a group of teenage boys aged between 11 and 19 are accused of gang raping two girls aged 12 and 13. Repeated attacks against the girls, who are cousins, were filmed by the assailants on their mobile phones.
Ms Meloni has promised to visit the town to see for herself the drug-dealing, poverty and criminality that has made it notorious.
She accepted an invitation from a local priest, Maurizio Patriciello, who said he expected her to visit on Thursday.
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