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- Italy's far-right prime minister is suing the lead singer of Placebo for calling her a "fascist."
- At a concert last month, Brian Molko also described Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni as a "racist."
- Meloni was a youth activist in a group founded by a member of dictator Benito Mussolini's government.
Italy's far-right Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who as a young politician described fascist dictator Benito Mussolini as a "good politician," is suing the singer of English rock band Placebo for describing her as a "fascist," the BBC reported Thursday.
At a concert last month in Turin, Brian Molko, frontman for the alternative rock group, described Meloni as a "piece of shit, fascist, racist shit," according to a video posted on social media. Soon after, Italian media said local prosecutors had opened an investigation into whether Molko had violated a law that prohibits "publicly [defaming] the republic."
Now, according to press reports, Meloni herself is suing Molko for defamation, the latest in a string of lawsuits against critics.
Meloni, who came to power last year as part of a right-wing coalition, has denied that her Brothers of Italy party has any sympathy for fascism or tolerance for those who do, describing the country's racist, antisemitic laws of the 1930s as a black mark on Italian history. But as a youth activist, Meloni herself praised the country's former fascist dictator saying that, "everything he did, he did for Italy."
While in office, Meloni's government has "spent its first months accusing minorities of undermining the triad of God, nation, and family," in the words of David Broder, a historian of Italian fascism. It has emphasized the "traditional" family, seeking to remove same-sex parents from their children's birth certificates and to further restrict immigration.
In April, a member of Meloni's government was criticized for claiming Italians run the risk of "ethnic replacement" due to migration.
"The minister's words take us back to the 1930s. They are words that have a flavor of white supremacism," Elly Schlein, an opposition politician, said at the time.
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