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Rome: An Italian court gave the green light on Tuesday for a new… Defamation The case brought by the Prime Minister Georgia MeloniThis time against a historian who described the far-right leader as “Neo-Nazis In the heart”.
Left-wing classic Luciano Canfora81, made the comments during a school debate in Bari, southern Italy, in April 2022 – six months before the Italian Brotherhood leader took office after a historic election victory.
The trial is scheduled to begin on October 7, with Meloni seeking 20,000 euros ($21,260) in damages.
Meloni last year successfully filed a lawsuit against journalist Roberto Saviano for criticizing her stance against migrants in December 2020, with an Italian court giving him a suspended fine of 1,000 euros.
She also filed a lawsuit against the lead singer of the British rock band Placebo, after he called her a “racist” and “fascist” during a concert in Italy in July 2023. This trial has not yet begun.
Meloni posted a video of Canfora speaking on Facebook, along with a comment condemning his “unacceptable words” which she said amounted to “vulgar propaganda for young students.”
Speaking to AFP before Tuesday's hearing in a Bari court, Canfora – a former professor of Greek and Latin philology at the University of Bari who is well-known in Italy – showed no remorse.
“When you say neo-Nazi, you don't think of someone who commits crimes or murders, you think of someone who still has some ideas, some mental attitudes that go back to the past,” Canfora said.
He noted that in her 2021 autobiography, “I Am Giorgia,” Meloni wrote about “taking up the baton” from post-war Italy’s far-right leaders, including Giorgio Almirante.
Almirante was one of the founders of the now-defunct Italian Social Movement, a party formed by supporters of fascist dictator Benito Mussolini after World War II.
He was also an official in the Italian Social Republic (RSI), a Nazi-controlled wartime puppet state.
Meloni's Brotherhood of Italy group is a political descendant of the MSI movement, although she told parliament when she took office that she had “never felt sympathy or closeness to undemocratic regimes… including fascism”.
Canfora was supported by many Italian and foreign intellectuals in defending his cause, with the left-wing French newspaper Liberation organizing a petition in support of him.
He told AFP on Tuesday that he viewed the trial as “an encouragement to go deeper into the study of post-fascist Italy.”
Left-wing classic Luciano Canfora81, made the comments during a school debate in Bari, southern Italy, in April 2022 – six months before the Italian Brotherhood leader took office after a historic election victory.
The trial is scheduled to begin on October 7, with Meloni seeking 20,000 euros ($21,260) in damages.
Meloni last year successfully filed a lawsuit against journalist Roberto Saviano for criticizing her stance against migrants in December 2020, with an Italian court giving him a suspended fine of 1,000 euros.
She also filed a lawsuit against the lead singer of the British rock band Placebo, after he called her a “racist” and “fascist” during a concert in Italy in July 2023. This trial has not yet begun.
Meloni posted a video of Canfora speaking on Facebook, along with a comment condemning his “unacceptable words” which she said amounted to “vulgar propaganda for young students.”
Speaking to AFP before Tuesday's hearing in a Bari court, Canfora – a former professor of Greek and Latin philology at the University of Bari who is well-known in Italy – showed no remorse.
“When you say neo-Nazi, you don't think of someone who commits crimes or murders, you think of someone who still has some ideas, some mental attitudes that go back to the past,” Canfora said.
He noted that in her 2021 autobiography, “I Am Giorgia,” Meloni wrote about “taking up the baton” from post-war Italy’s far-right leaders, including Giorgio Almirante.
Almirante was one of the founders of the now-defunct Italian Social Movement, a party formed by supporters of fascist dictator Benito Mussolini after World War II.
He was also an official in the Italian Social Republic (RSI), a Nazi-controlled wartime puppet state.
Meloni's Brotherhood of Italy group is a political descendant of the MSI movement, although she told parliament when she took office that she had “never felt sympathy or closeness to undemocratic regimes… including fascism”.
Canfora was supported by many Italian and foreign intellectuals in defending his cause, with the left-wing French newspaper Liberation organizing a petition in support of him.
He told AFP on Tuesday that he viewed the trial as “an encouragement to go deeper into the study of post-fascist Italy.”
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