Among the other students, he was present at the session in the Senate Chamber, during which Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni spoke. A boy from the Righi high school in Rome made the gesture of a gun to the prime minister with his fingers, with his thumb raised and two fingers joined. Gesture noticed by some parliamentarians, but immediately seen by the teacher, who intervened to stop the student, then also reprimanded by a Senate clerk.
The President of the Senate Ignazio La Russa, opening the proceedings at the beginning of the debate after Meloni’s communications, returned to the episode: “I want to point out – he said – an inelegant gesture, which occurred while I was greeting the student guests of the Senate, one of these he in fact turned his hand with the thumb raised and two fingers joined towards the prime minister, then taken back by the teacher.” “I want to condemn this – added La Russa – in the most absolute way even if it involves a little boy.”
The young man, 16 years old, then had a long meeting with the senior senator-quaestor of the Senate, Gaetano Nastri. In his office the boy apologized and said he was sorry.
The gesture was harshly condemned by various exponents of the centre-right and the principal of the Righi high school Cinzia Giacomobono herself announced “a disciplinary measure” against the boy. “These are things that shouldn’t be done,” said the head teacher. “Every day we teach children the values of democracy and respect. The class council will evaluate what to do, based on the institute regulations and the seriousness of what has been done. We’re sorry, we apologize, no one expected it.”
Meloni also then commented on the story, after thanking his colleagues for their solidarity. “I have nothing else to add,” he said, “except that it strikes me that such a gesture occurs on the day of the anniversary of Marco Biagi’s murder. I express closeness and solidarity to the Biagi family, a servant of the institutions and the State who paid with his life.”
The student will reportedly write a letter of apology.