Italy’s right-wing daily newspaper caused an explosion of outrage on Friday shortly after naming the country’s first female prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, “Man of the Year.”
Libero placed a lengthy note on its front page and posted a large portrait of Meloni in a double-breasted white jacket and with a determined look. Under the headline “Man of the Year,” the article said that Meloni had won “the war of the sexes” in Italy and had “not only broken the glass ceiling, she dissolved it.”
Giorgia Meloni for Libero is ‘Man of the Year’ because above everything she has cancelled the war of the sexes by winning it, by thinking differently, being divergent, overcoming the arrogance of men and the defeatism of women. She has not only broken the glass ceiling, she has dissolved it.
Nevertheless, the article was taken as an insult. It accused Meloni of not doing enough to protect women from violence and promoting regressive views of their role in society. Moreover, on Thursday, one of her party’s senators said that a young woman’s “first aspiration” should be to have a child.
Elly Schlein, secretary of the centre-left Democratic Party, criticised the paper’s editorial decision: “Today a right-wing newspaper is explaining to us that politics and power are for men,” Schlein said. “I don’t think my aspiration as a politician is to become ‘Man of the Year.’ On the contrary, I think this is a surrender.”
On the other hand, Gennaro Sangiuliano, former deputy director of Libero, told reporters in Naples that the title of ‘Man of the Year’ was well-deserved as he also took a swipe at the “barbarism” of “cancel culture.”
Meloni was elected Italy’s first female prime minister in October 2022. She seeks to protect the traditional family and national identity, safeguard cultural heritage and limit the arrival of migrants.
