The Prime Minister Matteo Renzi intervenes in defense of the Head of State Sergio Mattarella after the harsh attack launched by the Carroccio leader Matteo Salvini.
The Premier responded very harshly to the words spoken by the number one of the Northern League, calling him "petty": "Yesterday's controversies, the accusations against the President of the Republic are in my opinion something really petty. The Head of State represents all Italians and seizing every opportunity to make controversy differentiates us from the others".
A controversy that arose following a sentence pronounced by the President of the Republic during the opening of Vinitaly in Verona. Mattarella stated that "From an ancient product to a key to modernity, Italian wine, with its success in exports, confirms how Italy's destiny is linked to the overcoming of borders and not to their restoration".
The reference to the export of Italian products is as clear as it is obvious, but the Northern League secretary took the opportunity to shift the subject to the issue of migrants, making very strong accusations at the Head of State: "It's like saying everyone, Italy can enter anyone… If he said it sober, only one comment: accomplice and sold”.
Although many have pointed out to him the total decontextualization of the phrase which originally referred to wine and Italian exports, Salvini reiterates his accusations against the President, continuing a controversy that obviously aroused reactions from the entire Italian political panorama.
The president of the Senate Pietro Grasso wrote on Twitter: “Unacceptable offenses to President Mattarella. It's time for #Salvini to learn to respect the border that separates politics from insult ".
The president of the Senators of the Democratic Party Luigi Zanda shares the same opinion: "Salvini's words on Mattarella are the words of a subversive who hates Europe and does not love Italy". Laura Boldrini is also very harsh: “A broken and crude attack by the leader of the league. The question of borders, both for goods and for human beings, is one of the central questions of our time. Sometimes dramatic, as confirmed in these hours by the news of clashes with wounded arriving from Idomeni, on the Greek-Macedonian border. Such a complex issue certainly cannot be tackled through simplifications or slogans, or worse still with insults, as Matteo Salvini does".
