The Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, was the protagonist of a video that was seen by millions of Internet users around the world, without her knowing. She appeared completely naked, trying to have sex with several men, along with obscene writing. The face was hers, but not the body: the video had been modified to paste her face on the bodies of adult film actresses with a graphics program. It would have been done by a 40-year-old Sardinian man who, with the complicity of his 73-year-old father, placed it on a pornographic website in the United States in 2020, when the leader of Brothers of Italy was still in opposition . The videos were on the web for several months.
The far-right politician, when he found out that he had been used in this way thanks to some of his collaborators, reported it to the police. That is why, after the defamation trial opened in October, he has now just received a summons for July 2. The prime minister is called to testify before the court of Sàsser, in Sardinia, because judge Monia Adami has accepted the request of the defense to appear, despite the fact that at the beginning the prime minister’s lawyer had asked that she not have to testify.
Meloni is clear that he wants to get to the end: he has asked for compensation of 100,000 euros for damages, a symbolic sum that aims to send a clear message against this type of illegal activity. “The request wants to bring the message to all women who are victims of this type of abuse that they should not be afraid to report it – explained the legal representative of the Prime Minister, Maria Giulia Marongiu-. The figure is symbolic and aims to contribute to the protection of the victims, women who, often unconsciously, are the target of this type of crime”. As they have communicated, the proceeds will go to the Italian Ministry of the Interior’s fund for women who are victims of violence.
Italian police began investigating the matter in 2020, following Meloni’s complaint, when she was still the leader of a small opposition party. After tracing the data from the videos, first through the name the men used on the website and then through the phone line from which the images were broadcast, they managed to find the alleged perpetrators of the forgery . The Prosecutor’s Office, which tracked down his address in Sàsser, came to the conclusion that the son had used specific software to modify already existing pornographic films. The father would only be involved in the fact that he used his line to distribute them, so he has asked the court to close the case in exchange for doing community service, which will be decided by the court next week .
The news that Meloni will testify in the trial has come just after Palazzo Chigi, the seat of the Italian Executive, acknowledged that in recent days his Instagram account has suffered an attack that has put national security at risk. For a few seconds, cryptocurrencies with a photo of Elon Musk were advertised from his profile, but everything was in a panic once the intrusion was neutralized.
The Prime Minister has also been the protagonist these days in Italy for her gestures during an appearance before the Chamber of Deputies prior to this week’s European Council. First, for the criticism he received from the opposition when he referred to the deputies as “boys” while talking about foreign policy and the war in Ukraine, instead of the usual “honorable ones”. “Okay, honorable boys. Not even that? It’s clear that I’m not nice to you.” And then, for his graphic expressions during the debate, when the leader of the Alliance of Greens and Left Angelo Bonelli asked him not to give him a “disturbing look”. First, Meloni was surprised: “Me, a disturbing look?”. He then joked by covering his head with his jacket, an image that ended up on the cover of The Wall Street Journal. “I don’t know what I meant to say with that disturbing look, but I apologize to the colleague and to all the others who may have felt intimidated”, he replied on social networks.
