“One cannot remain silent front of this atrocious episode of sexual violence in broad daylight in Piacenza by an asylum-seeker,″ Meloni wrote. “A hug for this woman. I will do everything possible to restore security to our cities.”
Her main opponent in the September 25 vote,Democratic Party leader Enrico Letta,countered in a radio interview that reposting the video went beyond “the bounds of dignity and decency”.
A former education minister,Lucia Azzolina,said posting the alleged rape video “is not an official criminal complaint,but instrumentalisation” of violence.
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“(Seeing) a woman,candidate to run the country,using this media,is chilling,” Azzolina said.
And Carlo Calenda,leader of a small,new centrist party called Action,said “Meloni has done something not worthy of a civilised country,and against women”.
Meloni’s allusion to security in Italian cities is a right-wing theme in this election campaign,which also hits at immigration. She was backed by coalition partner Matteo Salvini,the leader of the right-wing League party and former firebrand interior minister,who pledged that “defending our borders and Italians will be a duty for me,not a right.”