The very evening of the swearing in of the Italian government, the first controversy erupted in its ranks, as the new minister for families, Lorenzo Fontana, a member of the League and ardent opponent of homosexual marriage and abortion, told Italian media: “Rainbow families [the symbol of homosexual movement] do not exist in Italian law. ”
Arriving Friday night at the Quirinal Palace, carrying his daughter in his arms and accompanied by his wife, the 38-year-old minister of the family said that “families are the natural, where a child must have a father, a mother and a child,” adding “The natural family is under attack. [Homosexuals] want to dominate us and erase our people.”
The minister added that as a Catholic he would also strengthen all organisations that “try to dissuade women from abortion,” arguing that “abortion is the leading cause of feminicide in the world.”
The League’s governing coalition partners, the Five Star Movement, (M5S) distanced itself from Fontana statements on Sunday, saying the subject of civil unions between same-sex people had been removed from their common political agenda.
Vice-President of the Chamber of Deputies, Maria Edera Spadoni, described the Fontana’s statements as “untimely”. “It’s no mystery that different sensitivities on ethical issues exist” between M5S, to which she belongs, and the League, she said in an interview at Corriere della Serra. She recalled that the most divisive subjects were deliberately removed from the contract of government, citing abortion and the homosexual civil union.
The words of the Minister of the Family forced Interior Minister Matteo Salvini to state that such a declaration was not included in the government contract. “As a father, I am concerned that a child should grow up between a father and a mother, but the issue is not on the government’s agenda,” he said.
Italy adopted the homosexual civil union in 2016, after months of stormy parliamentary battles.
