Outrage after attack on Italian reporter at neo-fascist event

According to his footage and a newspaper report, a group of men approached him and asked: “Are you one of us?” before attacking him, which left him hospitalized.

Meloni, the leader of the far-right Brothers of Italy party, expressed her solidarity with journalist Andrea Joly in the face of the “unacceptable attack”.

It was “an act of violence that I condemn in the strongest possible terms and for which I hope that those responsible will be identified as soon as possible,” it said in a statement.

Elly Schlein, leader of the centre-left opposition Democratic Party, also expressed her solidarity with Joly and condemned a “climate of impunity”.

“What are we waiting for before neo-fascist organizations are dissolved, as the constitution provides?” she asked.

The attack was one of two incidents of random violence that made headlines in Italy this weekend after a shocking video emerged showing two gay men being beaten by three men and a woman in Rome.

This attack was also condemned across the political spectrum.

Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani complained on Sunday about “too much violence and intolerance in Italy towards those who do not think like oneself” and wrote on X that he “strongly condemns any violence”.

ar/cw