Meloni-Salvini birthday karaoke row after Cutro visit

(ANSA) - ROME, MAR 11 - Premier Giorgia Meloni and Transport Minister Matteo Salvini's singing karaoke on the latter's 50th birthday in Rome Friday night to a song about a Calabrian emigrant found dead at a northern Italian river has caused a row with critics saying they found time for a festive singalong but didn't have time to pay homage to the coffins of the over 70 victims of the migrant disaster at Cutro Calabria when the cabinet met there on Thursday.
    After reports of rightwing Brothers of Italy (FdI) leader Meloni and rightwing League leader Salvini singing the fabrizio De André classic la Canzone di Marinella, the House whip for the centre-left Democratic Party (PD), Debora Serracchiani, quoted a poem by 1975 Nobel prize winner Eugenio Montale ending with the famous lines: "We can only say this to you today, what we are, what we do not want".
    In Bologna, where on Friday funerals for some of the Cutro victims were held, mayor Matteo Lepore said "Yesterday was a very painful day for all of us, we buried some coffins, including a little girl. I must say I was very struck by the image of both the government press conference (at Cutro), and by Salvini and Meloni's karaoke, they who did not want to meet the relatives nor pay homage to the coffins, but found the time to celebrate the 50th birthday of Minister Salvini".
    "It'll take a few more days to understand what are the most suitable words to comment a scene of this kind," said Lepore.
    Left-leaning journalist Selvaggia Lucarelli tweeted: "The two Christians Meloni and Salvini don't go to Cutro to pray in front of the coffins, but go to Cutro without wanting to see them. And then in the evening a bit of karaoke at Salvini's birthday party, singing the Canzone di Marinella, inspired by the story of a Calabrian emigrant found dead in a river".
    Liberal Turin daily La Stampa's editor Massimo Giannini tweeted: "They sing 'pietas' (the Roman solemn compassion for the dead) with the poet of the Last Ones (De André). On the wrong day. In the wrong place." FdI bigwig and Defence Minister Guido Cosetto made light of the karaoke party saying "luckily we don't have to get by by singing" while conservative TV broadcaster Nicola Porro posted a video of the party on Instagram saying "a propos the government crisis".
    Meloni launched a crackdown on migrant smugglers at the Cutro cabinet meeting, backed by Deputy Premier Salvini, a former strongman interior minister who operated a closed ports policy against NGO-run migrant rescue ships. (ANSA).