Paolo Signorelli has said that he is
resigning as the spokesman of Agriculture Minister Francesco
Lollobrigida amid a furore over a newspaper report about alleged
anti-Semitic comments used in an online chat he had with a
convicted criminal who was murdered in 2019.
The conversation between Signorelli and Fabrizio Piscitelli, a
drug-trafficker, right-wing extremist and top Lazio ultra fan
also known as Diabolik, featured insults of Jews and praise of
Neo-Fascist terrorists, according to a report by daily newspaper
La Repubblica.
The dialogue was uncovered by the investigation into
Piscitelli's murder in a Rome park on August 7, 2019 and leaked
to the daily.
Signorelli had suspended himself as the spokesman of
Lollobrigida, who is a leading member of Premier Giorgia
Meloni's right-wing Brothers of Italy (FdI) party, after the
report came out.
"I have decided to resign as spokesperson for the minister
Lollobrigida," Signorelli said in an interview published in
Tuesday's edition of Il Foglio, "for me and my family and so as
not to damage the government"
Signorelli said anti-Semitism was "light years away" from him
and that he does not identify with the "stupid words spoken in
foolishness ignorance.
"It was another phase of my life, it was another Paolo," he
said.
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