There is unease in Italy’s ruling right-wing government after Italian Defence Minister Guido Crosetto moved to dismiss a senior general for a book he wrote decrying the negative effects of politically correct culture and progressive ideology on Italian society.
Major General Roberto Vannacci, who served with the Italian army in Iraq, Somalia, and Afghanistan, courted controversy with his recently released book Il Mondo al Contrario (“The Upside-Down World”), in which he argues Italian society has been taken over by minority groups.
Despite rising high in the national bestseller list, General Vannacci’s writings ruffled feathers in official circles for statements linking homosexuality to deviant behavior and seemingly questioning whether a black Olympian was actually Italian.
While the general was publicly defended by Italy’s Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini and many Lega officials, Defence Minister Guido Crosetto reprimanded Vannacci for the book, saying that the military officer would face disciplinary action as he removed him from duty leading Italy’s primary paratrooper brigade and teaching at the prestigious Military Geographical Institute in Florence.
While Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has so far not commented on the issue, the dismissal of General Vannacci is worsening growing resentment between her Fratelli d’IItalia party and Lega on the back of an embarrassing U-turn over a proposed windfall tax on bank profits that sent financial markets into the gutter earlier this month.
Between a hardline pro-NATO stance, a wish to exit the Belt and Road Initiative, and a failure to reduce soaring numbers of illegal immigrants, there is a perception in the Italian Right, especially Lega, that Meloni is betraying the populist platform she was elected on.
“After a decade in opposition, “riding every demagogic wave” and “fuelling every identitarian flame” of the post-fascist right, Prime Minister Meloni “is (fortunately) doing the exact opposite of what one might reasonably have expected. She is pro-American and pro-European and is sensitive to individual rights issues,” noted liberal Italian Senator Andrea Cangini, observing tension even within Fratelli over the affair.
The purge of the general comes despite incessant claims by NGOs that Meloni is trying to roll back ‘LGBT’ rights in Italy after the country began clamping down on the registration of same-sex civil partnerships, with Italy being one of the few Western European nations where gay marriage is not legal.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau visibly annoyed the Italian prime minister when he cited Italy’s ‘LGBT’ record at a G7 meeting in Japan last May, with Meloni elected on a socially conservative platform last October.
