Anti-gay general Roberto Vannacci
said Monday he had been replaced in his post as head of Italy's
military geographical institute but not removed, denying
widespread reports that Defence Minister Guido Crosetto had
sacked him over a self-published book slamming gays, Jews,
feminists and migrants among other minorities.
"I have not heard from Minister Crosetto, I have read his
statements in the newspapers. And I have not received any
notification of measures. I have been replaced, as of midnight
today, I have not been removed from my post," Vannacci told
'Morning News' on Channel 5 after the controversy that arose
around his book, The World Back To Front, which has
become one of the hottest sellers on Amazon in Italy amid a
surge in social media support and sympathy for his views.
Crosetto is a top ally and personal friend of Premier Giorgia
Meloni but several other members of Meloni's Brothers of Italy
(FdI) have defended the general's right to speak his mind under
the Constitutionally sanctioned principle of freedom of
expression.
Culture Undersecretary, art critic and polemicist Vittorio
Sgarbi was the latest to express that view Saturday night.
Sgarbi, who heads his own independent libertarian party,
Renaissance, said that Crosetto had not read the general's book
and should have left the decision to discipline up to the army
top brass.
Meanwhile Vannacci turned down an offer from the tiny far right
Forza Nuova (FN) political party to stand as their candidate for
the upcoming by election for the late Silvio Berlusconi's old
Senate seat in Monza near Milan.
Vannacci, 55, a former head of the crack Folgore paratroopers
regiment, said gays weren't normal in his book which also
criticised the alleged Jewish and other lobbies of various
minorities.
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