Defense Minister Guido Crosetto on Wednesday called for "more appropriate" comments on the suspension from duty for 11 months of Italian Army General Roberto Vannacci in relation to publication of his controversial bestseller 'Il Mondo al Contrario' (The World Back To Front) after his cabinet colleague, Deputy Premier and Transport Minister Matteo Salvini, appeared to suggest the decision had been political and motivated by fear.
"The defense ministry is to issue a statement" on the Vannaccicase "explaining to those who are not familiar with the matter that we are talking about proceedings that started months ago, and which take place automatically and are totally beyond input from the political authority because they start from a technical authority," said Crosetto, a top exponent of Premier GiorgiaMeloni's Rothers of Italy (FdI) party.
"Once all the information is available, perhaps comments will be more appropriate. As far as I am concerned, I will shortly run out of cheeks to turn," he added.
Earlier Salvini, the leader of majority partner League, described as "ridiculous" the news of the suspension following disciplinary proceedings launched last year.
"An investigation a day, the situation is ridiculous: how scary is the General?"
said Salvini, who has always defended the55-year-old former paratrooper commander,
on , freedom and security of Italians," he added.
In its suspension order the defense ministry reportedly took issue with the "circumstances of the publication of the book", which was not cleared by top brass and claims, among other things, that gays are not normal, exposes the Great Replacement conspiracy theory about mainly Muslim migrants replacing ethnicItalians, saying only white people can be Italian, and laudsstand your ground self-defense laws.
These allegedly showed a "lack of sense of responsibility" and caused "injury to the principle of neutrality of the ArmedForce", "compromising the prestige and reputation of the Administration to which it belongs and generating possible disruptive and divisive emulative effects within the militarystructure".
Vannacci has said he intends to appeal against the suspension order to the Lazio Regional Administrative Court on grounds of conflict with the right to freedom of expression guaranteed to all citizens, including military personnel.
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