Premier Giorgia Meloni has blasted the centre-left opposition for alleged double standards after right-wing comedian Andrea Pucci said Sunday that he would not be co-hosting an evening of the popular Sanremo music festival later this month, as planned, after coming under a wave of online abuse.
The centre-left Democratic Party had called for clarification from State broadcaster Rai after it was announced that Pucci was slated to be part of the festival presenter and artistic director Carlo Conti’s team for the third night of the much-loved festival-cum-contest, alleging he was “homophobic and racist”.
The announcement also sparked outrage among users of Instagram, X and Facebook.
On Sunday Pucci said he was pulling out because “the insults, threats, epithets and whatnot received by me and my family over the last few days are incomprehensible and unacceptable.
“Homophobia and racism are terms that highlight hatred of humankind, and I have never hated anyone,” he continued.
Meloni expressed solidarity for Pucci soon after.
“It makes one think when, in 2026, an artist feels forced to renounce doing his job because of the climate of intimidation and hatred that has been whipped up around him,” she said on social media.
“It is unacceptable that ideological pressure reaches the point of forcing someone to give up taking the stage.
“This also tells us of the double standards of the Left, which considers satire (including insults) ‘sacred’ when it is directed toward its opponents, but calls for censorship against those who say things that the Left itself does not agree with.
“The illiberal drift of the Left in Italy is becoming frightening”.
Opposition politicians accused Meloni of making an issue of the case to distract attention from Italy’s “serious social emergencies”.