A vicious assault on two supporters of the Italian right-wing Lega party over the weekend has been roundly condemned by conservative Italian MPs.
The father and son activists, aged 60 and 15 years respectively, had been handing out leaflets on behalf of Lega’s Andrea Tragaioli, mayor of Rivoli, a commune in the municipality of Turin, on Sunday morning. After being surrounded by a group of seven people, the Lega supporters were attacked and beaten with bats.
Both suffered injuries to their backs and faces, with the 15-year-old, who also suffered an eye injury, being sent for a CT scan at a nearby hospital due to head trauma. The identities of the assailants are so far unknown. Both Lega supporters were kept in hospital for further observation.
Italian Deputy Prime Minister and Lega leader Matteo Salvini sent an “affectionate hug” to his injured party supporters, while Lega MP Riccardo Molinari warned that the “number of these politically motivated hate episodes has been increasing in recent months.”
“An episode as disturbing as it is unacceptable: words of clear condemnation from the left would be in order for a case which once again highlights the dangerous effects of a scheme according to which the centre-right is made up of monsters to be fought,” Il Giornale wrote.
Since even before the ‘years of lead’ in the 1970s, Italy has been no stranger to left-wing violence. Numerous officials have warned of an upswing in radical left agitation in the aftermath of the populist takeover of the Italian government under Giorgia Meloni and her right-wing coalition.
Only last year, a diplomatic row erupted between the Italian and Hungarian governments over the treatment given to one left-wing extremist involved in a hammer attack in Budapest, with 39-year-old activist Ilaria Salis looking at achieving immunity from prosecution due to a decision by the Italian Democratic Party to run her as an election candidate.
Despite almost daily media denunciations of the growth of the so-called far right, Europe has seen a rising tide of violence against conservative and nationalist politicians including the attempted assassination of one conservative lawmaker in Spain in November and a senior AfD leader being stabbed with a syringe.
Concerns over increasing violence were heightened last week by the assassination attempt of populist Slovakian PM Robert Fico by an anti-government poet and activist.