Circa thirty associations and organizations and over two hundred and fifty citizens have signed an appeal of solidarity towards Luciano Canfora, philologist and historian, professor emeritus of the University of Bari, sued for defamation by Giorgia Meloni for some statements made in April 2022 during a meeting on the war in Ukraine in a high school in Bari: Canfora had defined the leader as a “Neo-Nazi at heart”. of Fratelli d’Italia who would subsequently become Prime Minister in October of the same year. The prosecutor’s office has requested a direct summons for Canfora and the pre-trial hearing will be held on April 16th.
Camphor: dissent is now under attack Francesco Rigatelli 19 March 2024
Canfora’s opinion «on the ideas and feelings of the Hon. Meloni – the signatories point out – must be included in the legitimate exercise of political criticism, and the opinion expressed by him in that circumstance can be discussed, certainly not considered completely unfounded or motivated by a simple denigrating desire”. «We wish to express our full solidarity with Luciano Canfora – conclude the signatories of the document – not only because we deeply respect his stature as a scholar, we admire his indisputable intellectual honesty and his civil passion, but also because we are aware that the ultimate target of the legal action taken by the Hon. Meloni is the constitutionally guaranteed right to freedom of thought and opinion.”
Among the organizations, the six provincial committees of the Apulian ANPI, the ARCI Puglia and Bari-BAT, the CGIL Puglia and the Metropolitan Chamber of Labor of Bari, Libera Puglia, the Giuseppe Di Vagno Foundation, political parties and political associations sign the document -cultural, the student organizations gathered at regional level in the Knowledge Network. Among the individual signatures appear the national president of Anpi Gianfranco Pagliarulo, the regional secretary of CGIL Gigia Bucci and the secretary of the Chamber of Labor of Bari Domenico Ficco, the regional president of Arci Francesco Digregorio, Don Angelo Cassano, the former president of the province Gianvito Mastroleo, the director Carlo Bruni, the former mayor Daniela Mazzucca, the former rector Corrado Petrocelli, the university professors Nicola Colaianni, Lea Durante, Luisa Giorgio, Domenico Mugnolo, Mario Spagnoletti, Ferdinando Pappalardo, Pasquale Voza, the coordinator of the Regional Observatory on neofascism Antonella Morga.