Senate Speaker Pietro Grasso blasted daily newspaper Libero's front page headline on Wednesday, which said the only way to "knock out" Democratic Party (PD) leader Matteo Renzi is too "shoot him". "Libero's headline is not a political analysis," Grasso said.
"It is not a metaphor. It is not a provocation. It is not a summary. It is not a joke. It is just sad, intolerable trash". The headline related to an article about turmoil on the centre-left following a poor showing in Sunday's regional elections in Sicily and reported attempts to sideline Renzi.
Lower House Speaker Laura Boldrini described Libero's front-page headline as "appalling". "It is only the latest in a long series of deliberate incitements to #hate," Boldrini said via Twitter. "This is not journalism. Solidarity to @matteorenzi".
Italian journalists union FNSI spoke out too. "The headline of the daily newspaper Libero on Matteo Renzi is instigation to violence and incitement of hate," FNSI said in a statement. "It has nothing to do with journalism and it cannot represent exercise of the right to criticism, which is always legitimate and insuppressible, either.
"FNSI's solidarity goes to the PD leader, just as it goes to any other person hit by words transformed into stones".
Libero editor Vittorio Feltri hit back at criticism.
"I chose metaphor in common use," Feltri told ANSA. "If you attribute my headline to be a threat, it means you are illiterate.
"The article is not the headline. Those who want to understand better, read the text. "All you have to do is read three paragraphs to understand that Renzi is under friendly fire... it is the left that is shooting at him".
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © Copyright ANSA
