PM urges opposition to condemn ‘intimidation’ of anti-abortion group

“I don’t know how they plan to fight violence against women by taking part in intolerable acts of violence and intimidation like those on Saturday against the Pro Vita & Famiglia association,” Meloni said on social media. (File Photo: Valsts kanceleja/State Chancellery/Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

ROME – Premier Giorgia Meloni on Monday called on Italy’s opposition parties and the CGIL trade union to condemn the “intimidation” of the Pro Vita & Famiglia association, which campaigns against abortion and same-sex parents.

This after some protestors threw bottles and flares at the building where the non-profit organization is headquartered during Saturday’s march in Rome to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women.

Police in riot gear intervened in the incident.

“I don’t know how they plan to fight violence against women by taking part in intolerable acts of violence and intimidation like those on Saturday against the Pro Vita & Famiglia association,” Meloni said on social media.

He explained that “it is always unacceptable to devastate an office (of a body), especially if it is devastated in the name of women who have been raped, beaten or killed.”

“I want to ask everyone a simple question: should violence always be condemned or only when it is aimed at someone whose ideas we share?” he said, noting that “we have never had a clear answer to this question from a certain part of the Left.”

“I hope it comes this time from (Democratic Party leader) Elly Schlein, from (5-Star Movement chief) Giuseppe Conte, from (CGIL Secretary General) Maurizio Landini and from the CGIL to whom we all expressed our solidarity on the occasion of the shameful attack on the union headquarters,” he said.

The last part of the statement refers to the ransacking of the CGIL’s Rome headquarters in October 2021 by far-right militants during a protest against the COVID-19 Green Pass health certificate. (ANSA)