President Sergio Mattarella on Friday expressed solidarity for Premier Giorgia Meloni after amannequin resembling the leader of the right-wing Brothers of Italy (FdI) party was burned at a march in Rome.
The incident took place on Thursday in the capital's Montesacroquarter during a commemoration for a left-wing militant killed in 1980 during Italy's 'Years of Lead' of political violence.
"We are witnessing an intolerable series of manifestations of violence: insults, vulgar language, speeches devoid of content but full of verbal aggression, even effigies burned or vilified, severe times, even of the Prime Minister herself, to whom full solidarity must be expressed," Mattarella told students at theQuirinale palace in Rome.
"Political confrontation, the contrast of ideas and proposals, competition, including electoral competition, are mortified and distorted as a result," he continued.
Consequently, Mattarella said "the dignity of politicsdisappears, supplanted by events that represent its negation.
"I hope that politics will always and as quickly as possiblereassert its authenticity, in its most noble forms," he added.
This year Italians will be called to vote in local elections in over 3,700 towns and cities including six regional capitals, regional elections in five regions and European parliamentary elections.
The first appointment with the ballot box is for regional elections in Sardinia on Sunday.
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