Meloni heads Italy’s most rightwing government since the second world war. Italy’s criminal code punishes with a fine ranging from €1,000 to €5,000 anyone who “publicly defames the republic”, which includes the government, parliament, the courts and the army.
I’ve been surprised that some western countries have laws like this. A French woman has also been fined for insulting Macron.
The public prosecution department in Germany let someone’s home got searched because he called a conservative politician “Du bist so 1 Pimmel” (“you are such a penis”) via Twitter.
At the same time the public prosecution department in Germany regularly refuses to take action against hate speech when aimed against other people. Even other politicians.
And since many people do not really understand our jurisdiction, they believe it is enough to protest against the police.
It’s almost like making laws against free speech is a slippery slope.
It can be, but not all speech is free, not even in the US.
Them’s fighting words.
Nope. There’s a bunch of thoughts and speech acts that don’t contribute anything. There’s a reason the swastika and other Nazi codes/insignia are outlawed in Germany. “We just need to exterminate the Jews for a better life for everyone else” is similarly outlawed under an incitement to genocide clause.
There are very good reasons to put barriers on absolutely free speech.
TIL about Italy’s shunning of their past in contrast to the “collective guilt” felt by Germans after WWII
Italy has a real hardware love for fascism, it’s part of the culture, unfortunately. I wouldn’t be surprised if they go full Nazi in the coming decades.
After WW2 italian socialist and communist parties where between the strongest ones in non USRR europe (if not the number one), but let’s just spout random nonsense for no reason
While the extreme right wing never disappeared, they were as much as a niche as the extreme left.
The country stayed between the left and the center until well into the 90s when a moderate right became more prominent and started to be closer to a 50/50 split
The general right wing radicalization we’re seeing now is way more recent and it’s hardly a phenomenon exclusive to Italy.
I totally agree that the current Italian government is ridiculous and that this problem with extreme right wing populism is becoming very serious in most western countries, Italy included.
But comparing this to a culture ingrained love for fascism when fascism didn’t last for even 1% of Italian history and culture is just asinine and ignorant.
This kind of attitude is ironically very similar to the racism you’re trying to criticize
With operation Gladio Italy was the core place for neonazi terrorist groups that received paramilitary training and funding by the US and carried out multiple terrorist attacks to be blamed on the left. It is hard to believe that the Italian government wouldnt have known and tolerated theses activities too. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Gladio
