2023-06-10 10:40:45
Giorgia Meloni used to suffer the feminism attacks Italian. To today’s Prime Minister of Italia they accused her of stigmatizing and victimizing women. Then, last March, the ultra-right had a chance which was not wasted Elly Schleina young, secular and LGTBI+ woman, had just been elected as the new leader of the main center-left formation in Italy, the Democratic party (P.S). The novelty generated media attention in his country and, in a short time, the PD went up some steps in political support polls in Italy.
But then it began to be rumored that Schlein, born in Switzerland to an American father, was in favor of Surrogate motherhood, a controversial practice that leftist movements and parties reject in other countries. Meloni, aware of the division that the argument causes within society, he had found one of his adversaries’ Achilles heels.
divide and conquer
The seasoned far-right leader decided to use a date more than symbolic for his first attack. A few days before March 8, the International Women’s DayMeloni gave a long interview to the magazine ‘Grazia’, specialized in women’s issues, in which she described the Surrogate motherhood in a new way”slavery“. The interview immediately had a great impact.
“I will never resign myself to the idea that this is the result of years of fights for women’s rights“, the far-right leader explained in the text. “I don’t think commercialize the female body and transform the maternity in a business can be described as conquests for society”, he added. The famous tactic of divide and conquer had been embraced by Meloni, but the particular civil war which was about to be released within the italian progressivism was still in the making.
In April, Schlein finally named the members of his Political Secretariat. And, within this body, he included Alessandro Zana representative of the community LGBTI+ which in the past has come to accuse the historical feminists (also called radicals, in Italy) of “retrograde“, for his position contrary to the surrogate bellies and his doubts about the so-called gender ideology.
afraid to speak
On the 19th of that month, Schlein clarified his position on the matter. In a public statement, the young politician acknowledged that within the PD there was no consensus about surrogate motherhood, but added that she has “always” been in favor of it. In parallel, around 100 italian feminists Schlein was asked to rule against it, and the matter ended up bringing enormous pressure to groups of lesbianssome of which suffered internal divisions and were left out of the debate.
Other women also started not wanting to pronounce on the matter, for fear to be linked to Meloni. “I am from the left, I am an atheist and I believe that surrogate motherhood transforms women into objects and birth into a form of production. But unfortunately I can not speak“wrote in those days one of the leaders of the lesbian movement to this journalist.
universal crime
MelonsFor his part, he decided double your bet. While his government was experiencing difficulties accessing European funds from the post-covid recovery plan, he diverted the public debate with a very opportunistic announcement. The party of him, brothers from italy (FDI, for its acronym in Italian), announced its intention to reactivate some old proposals for toughen Italian legislation on surrogate motherhood, already illegal in Italy.
Thus, in May, the debate moved to Parliament with a proposal for a law on Caroline Varchi, a well-known anti-abortionist of the IDF, who proposed to prohibit Italians from resorting to surrogate motherhood also abroad. Varchi recalled that a 2004 law already stipulates sentences of three months to two years in prison and fines of up to one million euros, but that has not prevented some from resorting to the practice in countries where surrogate motherhood is allowed.
With this, the idea of considering surrogate motherhood a “universal crime“, as is the case with war crimes. The controversy then jumped, with greater intensity, to the Italian press. so much that even Matthew Salvini, leader of the League and partner of Meloni, began to talk about it. “The women are not rentedchildren are not bought,” Salvini said again last week.
cornered
It has been of little use that various jurists manifested skeptical about the possibilities for the FDI law to go ahead on its parliamentary path. Even the intellectuals started talking about it. Some, like the former constitutional judge Gustavo Zagrebelskythey branded her as “discrimination“ for children born from surrogate motherhood. This is because Meloni’s party’s proposal includes that those who try to register these minors in the public registries will essentially be denouncing themselves, Zagrebelsky said.
Since then, Meloni and his associates have repeatedly attacked the PD in relation to this issue. A strategy that has forced the new leadership of the PD to pronounce itself more than once on the matter, which has also generated friction in the bases of the progressive formation, particularly in the Catholic wing of the party, very contrary to any acceptance of surrogates. This has coincided with a drop in support for the PD.
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