Romano Prodi said Wednesday critics
of his gesture to a Mediaset journalist Monday were "getting
affection mixed up with aggression" after the two-time former
centre-left premier and ex European Commission chief apparently
tugged her hair in irritation at what he saw as an importunate
question on the Ventotene Manifesto amid a row between the
opposition and Premier Giorgia Meloni on the foundational
document of the 'United States of Europe'.
"Time clarifies many things. Affection is exchanged for
aggression," said the 85-year-old 'Professor' after meeting
Euroepan Parliament President Roberta Metsola in Brussels.
The incident occurred after Lavinia Orefici, a journalist from
the Quarta Repubblica show on Mediaset, asked Prodi to comment
on a part of the Ventotene Manifesto Meloni read out in
parliament outraging the opposition, about the abolition of
private property.
A video of the exchange clearly shows the clearly irked academic
turned politician gently tugging at a lock of Orefici's hair
before telling her she did not have any "sense of history".
Meloni last week also cited the manifesto's call for the
temporary suspension of democracy to set up a Socialist federal
super state in declaring, to the rage of the opposition, that
!this is not my Europe".
The opposition subsequently made a pilgrimage to Ventotene, the
former prison island where anti-fascist prisoners like the
drafters of the manifesto were held, and laid a wreath at the
tomb of one of them, Altiero Spinelli.
The other two leftist political prisoners who are now revered as
among the 'founding fathers' of the EU were Ernesto Rossi and
Eugenio Colorni.
Amid rising calls for him to apologise for pulling Orefici's
hair, Prodi insisted:
"I have nothing to clarify, you know what an excellent
relationship I have with journalists, but if they want to create
an incident against an old professor, then go ahead."
Journalists union FNSI characterised the incident as a
"dangerous lack of respect for those who are making
information".
TV unions including that of state broadcaster Rai also asked
Prodi for an apology.
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