Fratelli d’Italia attacks Carmen Consoli head-on after a video extract was released on the party’s official profiles – taken from the singer-songwriter’s speech at the University of Palermo – in which the “singer” utters some phrases deemed offensive towards Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
In the video, shown and relaunched on the party’s social pages, Consoli speaks in front of an audience of students addressing the topic of political language and female role models in contemporary society. During the contested passage, the singer-songwriter uses some expressions judged by Fratelli d’Italia as “body shaming” and as a personal attack on the prime minister.
The majority party reacted harshly, defining the artist’s words as “a sad decline” and accusing her of having chosen the path of insult rather than confrontation of ideas. “It is serious – we read in the post published on official channels – that a public figure used as a cultural reference for many young people resorts to physical attacks against the Prime Minister. A wrong example, especially in a university context”.
The video, which went viral in a few hours, has reignited the debate on the relationship between politics and the world of entertainment, but also on the limits of satire and criticism when they concern institutional figures. At the moment, Consoli has not publicly responded to the accusations, while divided comments are multiplying on social media: on the one hand those who defend the artist’s freedom of expression, on the other those who consider the tone used unacceptable.
The episode comes in an already tense political climate, where every public statement immediately takes on a national value and becomes a battleground. And the case doesn’t look like it’s going away anytime soon.