Premier Matteo Renzi on
Wednesday accused anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S)
bigwig Luigi Di Maio of "offending the Italian Republic" by
comparing him to late Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet.
"Someone who compares Italy to Chile where opponents were thrown
away is not offending me, he is offending the Italian Republic
which I am honoured to serve and to whose flag I pay deferential
homage," Renzi said. "We don't play with heavy words," said the
premier at a Cuneo rally in favour of a Yes vote in an autumn
referendum on the government's institutional revamp. "Freedom,
dictatorship and Fascism are bigger than us". Renzi added that
he "didn't know" why Di Maio had written what he did on his
Facebook page Tuesday. "Perhaps to cover internal woes" in the
M5S, he said, referring to chaos that has roiled Rome Mayor
Virginia Raggi. Di Maio compared Renzi with US client Pinochet
after US Ambassador John Phillips was accused of meddling in
Italian politics after coming out in favour of a Yes vote in the
referendum. Di Maio was widely mocked when he mistakenly said
Pinochet ruled Venezuela, not Chile. He called this a Freudian
slip.
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