“Far West Parliament”: the Italian press and political leaders denounced the fight that occurred on Wednesday between deputies during a tense debate on the plan of the far-right government of Giorgia Meloni to grant à la carte autonomy to the regions.
The text plans to grant regions that wish it more autonomy vis-à-vis Rome, raising fears of a decline in public services in the poorest regions.
Wednesday evening, in the middle of a debate in the hemicycle, the deputy of the 5 Star Movement (M5S) Leonardo Donno left his seat to approach the Minister of Regional Affairs and Autonomies Roberto Calderoli, member of the League and tried to attack him. hang an Italian flag around your neck.
This gesture to denounce the undermining of the unity of the country provoked the anger of the League deputies, who in turn left their benches and went down to the hemicycle to take him to task and fight.
“Far West Room”, asserts the daily La Stampa. “Shustle and blows […]: the Chamber is a ring”, headlines Corriere della Sera, the main daily newspaper on the peninsula.
“The right wing squadristas are fighting in Parliament,” regrets La Repubblica, using the term designating paramilitary forces after the First World War which became a form of armed wing of Italian fascism.
In the fight, Mr. Donno received blows and had to be evacuated in a wheelchair before being hospitalized. The images, on the front pages of newspapers and on news channels, show a fight involving around twenty men in suits and ties.
The brawl provoked a torrent of reactions, with MPs from the League and Fratelli d’Italia, Giorgia Meloni’s party, accusing Mr Donno of provoking the incident and faking his injuries, while others regretted the bad example given by elected officials.
The M5S denounced an “extremely serious and shameful attack” and demanded “serious and immediate measures”. “We are coming to violence from the benches of the Meloni majority […] You will not pass. Shame,” wrote its leader, Giuseppe Conte, on X.
“The hemicycle is not a ring […] We must show a completely different example, it is not punches that solve political problems”, reacted Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani on the Sky TG24 channel .
The scene is not completely new: in 2021, in the middle of the debate on the health pass, deputies from the Fratelli d’Italia party (far right) invaded the hemicycle and caused an interruption of the session.
