Italian Lower House Deputy
Speaker Luigi Di Maio from the anti-establishment 5-Star
Movement on Tuesday compared Matteo Renzi to Chilean dictator
Augusto Pinochet, prompting harsh responses from the premier's
Democratic Party (PD).
Di Maio wrote on Facebook that Renzi is "not a prime
minister but the biggest provoker of the Italian people, a
non-elected premier, without any popular legitimacy, who smiles
while people suffer," he said.
He added that Renzi was turning the upcoming autumn
referendum on constitutional reform into a vote on himself,
saying that the premier "has taken up public office with
arrogance, like in the time of Pinochet in Chile".
The comparison to Pinochet, who rose to power in a violent
coup in 1973, met a harsh response from within the ranks of the
PD.
"Attacking the premier is legitimate. Comparing Italy to a
dictatorship is sordid," said the prime minister's
undersecretary Luca Lotti.
PD Lower House whip Ettore Rosato said Di Maio had made an
'indecent' comparison that offended those who had "paid with
their life for the right to freedom and democracy".
About 3,000 people died in political violence during
Pinochet's rule from 1973 to 1990, and many more suffered
torture or fled into exile.
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