The controversial World Conference
of Families, which has been criticised for promoting an
anti-gay, anti-abortion and anti-feminism agenda, kicked off in
Verona on Friday.
The event, which runs until Sunday, has seen the parties
supporting Premier Giuseppe Conte's government take up very
different positions.
The 5-Star Movement (M5S) is against the conference but three
ministers from the League will be taking part.
The government recently stripped the conference of its
sponsorship.
Conte said the endorsement had come personally from Family
Minister Lorenzo Fontana without consulting the rest of the
government.
The event has come under fire for its narrow vision of the
traditional family being the only acceptable model.
Family Day leader Massimo Gandolfini attacked Italy's
abortion law on the sidelines of the event, telling reporters it
must be changed so that abortion is banned and millions of
embryos saved.
"From 1978 to today some six million babies have been killed
and just 200,000 saved," Gandolfini told reporters on one of the
main themes of the event.
Senator Simone Pillon of the authoritarian nationalist League
party told the gathering that the first part of the abortion
law, Law No 194 of the Italian Republic, should be applied and
not the rest.
The first part of the law speaks of safeguarding women and
pregnancies.
Meanwhile tension remained between the League, which broadly
supports the event, and its senior government partner the
anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S), which is broadly
against it.
Health Minister Giulia Grillo, of the M5S, described the
event as "far-right".
The M5S Family Undersecretary Vincenzo Spadafora said "the
conference is discussing issues that have never been in the
government contract with the League".
Premier Giuseppe Conte said he would not be going to the
event, because he hadn't been invited, but said "we are not
afraid of the fact that ideas are circulating".
However, one member of the M5S, Senator Tiziana Drago, did
attend the event.
"It wasn't easy to come here and I want to say that it was a
personal choice," she said, saying there were M5S members who
were "in favour of the traditional family".
She said "the rights of all must be safeguarded, and those of
the babies are in first place".
Among the promotional gifts on sale in Verona were a rubber
10-week foetus, tagged "abortion stops a beating heart", a
keyring with tiny feet on it, and a course to treat women who
want to have abortions.
Protesters against the event marched under a banner saying
"let's not return to the Middle Ages".
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