Judge Antonietta Guerra sent the philologist and historian to trial Luciano Canforaaccused for aggravated defamation towards the Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. The facts date back to 11 April 2022, when Meloni was an opposition parliamentarian and the Prime Minister in office was Mario Draghi. Canfora, invited to speak at the Enrico Fermi scientific high school in Bari as part of a meeting on the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, defined Meloni as “a neo-Nazi at heart”, “a poor thing”, “treated like a very dangerous lunatic”. The trial will begin on October 7 before single judge Pasquale Santoro.
The lawyer Michele Laforgiadefender of Canfora (and candidate for mayor of Bari running for the center-left primaries with the support of the M5s), had asked to “acquit the accused because the fact does not exist or because it does not constitute a crime or because it is not punishable for the ‘exercise of the right of political criticism’.
Meloni has asked for 20 thousand euros in compensation, she will be called by the defense to testify: “In our defense it was explicit that, if we had to delve into the topic of ‘neo-Nazism in the soul’ on the merits it would have been necessary to hear the person offended by the crime”, she said Laforgia, “and perhaps acquire an important mass of biographical, bibliographical and autobiographical documents” which “must be acquired during the trial, in the cross-examination between the parties”. “I remain convinced – added Laforgia – that a trial for a political judgment for defamation cannot be held and should not be held, and that it is very inappropriate to do so when there is state power on the other side, because the Prime Minister it is the power of the state.”