Meloni’s Party Sees Officials Quit After Racist Jokes on Camera
(Bloomberg) -- Two members from the youth wing of Giorgia Meloni’s party have resigned from their posts after they were caught on camera making remarks that officials judged to be racist and antisemitic.
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Italian media including newswire Ansa reported Thursday that two activists from the National Youth had stepped down from their positions. Their remarks were recorded as part of an investigation published by Fanpage, a news website.
Giovanni Donzelli, the head of the party apparatus, said late Wednesday there is “no space” in the organization for “racist, extremist or antisemitic” individuals. He said the remarks were “incompatible” with the movement’s values.
A lawmaker for the party, Tommaso Foti, told Parliament that “those who make mistakes in Brothers of Italy pay,” Ansa reported.
Since taking office in late 2022, Meloni has sought to distance herself from her party’s roots in Italy’s post-fascist movement and softened some of her most conservative views, sensitive to the risks of being portrayed as an extremist.
A separate report by Fanpage showed other members of the Brothers of Italy’s youth movement raising their arms in a salute commonly used during Italy’s Fascist era.
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