Italy: Student Made Gun gesture to Prime Minister Georgia · Global Voices Meloni – “I did mal@” said regret

The “inspiration” of a high school student to proceed with a gun marking the prime minister, within the Italian Senate, has caused a major debate in Italy. The gesture occurred during Georgia Meloni’s speech to the Senate ahead of her visit to the European Council. Present during the speech were students of a class from Rigi High School, Rome. But when Senate President Iniacio La Russa greeted the class, the students stood up, while one of them made the gesture of a weapon, marking the prime minister, as ERT broadcast. A teacher immediately lowered his hand and soon afterwards intervened with Senate staff. Liceo Righi’s director in Rome, Cinzia Giacomobono, told ANSA that the boy would be punished. “We will take disciplinary action,” she said. “You don’t do these things”, he added, while saying he knows that there are “left-wing students in our school who criticize the government, as well as far-right students”. According to La Repubblica, schoolmates of the student stated that the gesture “was not a threat, but a racing symbol, made famous by Autonomia Operaia and then remained on the common list of dissent gestures”. Corriere della Sera contacted the student, who confirms the above and regrets: “I made a mal… I should not have made this gesture, and in any case my intention was not violent”, she said. The student, who declares “an activist, a participant in the school collective”, points out that “no one can deny that today in the (Italian) Parliament are sitting neofascists” and spoke of an apology letter “to Meloni and La Russa”, but will close “with dear anti-fascist greetings”.