During a concert near Turin on Tuesday July 11, Brian Molko described the Italian Prime Minister as “racist and fascist”. He faces a fine of up to 5,000 euros.
After the French singer Izïa, it’s Brian Molko’s turn to make controversial remarks. An investigation has been opened by the Italian public prosecutor’s office against the singer of the British group Placebo, who recently called far-right Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on stage a “racist and fascist”local media reported on Tuesday.
Several concerts canceled
The 50-year-old American-British artist was taking part in the “Sonic Park” festival in Stupinigi, near Turin, on July 11, when he launched in front of thousands of spectators: “Giorgia Meloni, you fascist, racist shit, fuck you”.
Some municipalities have since made it known that they would refuse to allow the group to perform on their territory. The city of Matera (Basilicata) has already announced that it is withdrawing its subsidies to the same festival which is to relocate there, while the mayor of Sassari (Sardinia) has told him that he will not prevent the group to hold their concert on August 1st.
1000 to 5000 euros fine
“The municipality of Sassari does not condemn anyone and does not lecture anyone. If Placebo commits obscene, vulgar acts, they will answer for them in court, not to the mayor or to the region”said Nanni Campus, today without a label but from the same political movement as Giorgia Meloni.
Paola Ambrogio, a senator from Meloni Fratelli d’Italia’s party, lambasted “a slap in the face to Italy and democracy”. According to article 290 of the Italian Penal Code, the law punishes with a fine of 1,000 to 5,000 euros for anyone who “publicly defames the Republic” but also the Parliament, the government, the constitutional council, justice or the army.
Giorgia Meloni, who became head of the Italian government in October 2022, and her party are the heirs of the Italian Social Movement (MSI), a neo-fascist party created after the Second World War from which she took over, when Fratelli d’Italia was founded at the end of 2012 , the tricolor flame.
A claimed Mussolini filiation
Since taking office, the Prime Minister has avoided speaking out on the subject. Last year, a few weeks before the legislative elections, she still recognized the dictator Benito Mussolini (1922-1945) for having “much accomplished”without exempting it from its “errors” : among others, the anti-Jewish laws of 1938 and the entry into the war in 1940.
The leader of the Fratelli d’Italia also affirms that in her party “there is no place for those nostalgic for fascism, nor for racism and anti-Semitism”. However, several personalities in his political entourage do not hesitate to claim their affiliation with this dark period of Italian history. Like the President of the Senate Ignazio La Russa, collector of busts of Mussolini, who nevertheless claims to belong to a fringe of the democratic Italian conservative right, which would have definitively broken with the authoritarian temptation after the war.