The president of the Italian Senate, Ignazio La Russa, is once again at the center of the controversy. The veteran far-right politician – co-founder of the Brothers of Italy together with the Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, has given an interview on a program on Italian public television that has generated a great deal of controversy in the country due to comments branded as sexist and homophobic. The second position of the Italian State has come to disqualify right-wing politicians in Parliament for their "aesthetic level" and has also ensured that, if a son confessed to him that he is homosexual, he would accept it "unwillingly".
"I love the female gender," he told the presenter Francesca Fagnani on the Rai2 channel. After her, about her fellow parliamentarians, she indicated that “the aesthetic level of women in the center right has decreased. The quality has increased, the capacity. I don't look to the left." And she went further: “Equality in politics is not obtained with quotas. It will be obtained when a fat, ugly and stupid woman holds an important position. Because there are fat, ugly, dumb men who hold very important positions,” she stated.
Asked how he would view a son confessing to being homosexual to him, La Russa stated on the Belve program that he would "resent the news, but he would accept it." “Because I believe that a person like me, heterosexual, wants a child to look like him. It is as if my son were from Milan ”, she compared. La Russa is a well-known supporter of Inter, the Rossoneri's rival in the Lombard capital.
La Russa was appointed president of the Upper House in October, the second institutional position in the country after the president of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella. At 75, he is an old-guard far-right militant from the Italian Social Movement (MSI), a party that brought together the heirs of Benito Mussolini's fascism. Later he moved with Gianfranco Fini to Alianza Nacional, he was Silvio Berlusconi's Defense Minister and in 2012 he founded, together with Giorgia Meloni, Brothers of Italy, the new political artifact that came to encompass part of the world from the MSI.
Baptized as Ignazio Benito María, in a clear reference to Mussolini, La Russa has never hidden his admiration for the dictator. A few months ago a 2018 video surfaced showing his collection of fascist relics, including a statue of Mussolini, in his own home. Now, she regrets having taught it. “My sister loves him, he says that our father has left him to us. Now my sister has it, ”he assured in the interview on Rai2.
Several members of the left-wing opposition have intervened to condemn these words. For example, Elly Schlein, candidate to lead the Democratic Party (PD) in the primaries to be held this Sunday, has regretted that the second position of the Italian State makes "homophobic, sexist and nostalgic statements, demonstrating that he is inadequate for the institutional role he makes". Simona Malpezzi, leader of the PD group in the Chamber of Deputies, has also said that "it is not about being more or less politically correct, but about respecting the institutions that are represented." "Having a father with busts of Mussolini in the room is always disgusting," replied Alessandro Zan, a Social Democratic deputy who is very active in LGBT causes.
Stefania Craxi, a senator from Forza Italia, a right-wing coalition party, told La Stampa that she does not agree that right-wing women are "less beautiful, that's what he says." “But regarding the capabilities, I very much agree," he pointed out. Elio Vito, a former parliamentarian from the same party, has been harsher: "I imagine how gay boys and girls must feel this morning after hearing about the second charge of the State that they are a nuisance to their parents. I think La Russa couldn't sink any lower."
