iPhone | iPad
Android
Huawei
When we choose to look away for good, we are as complicit as those at the helm of this atrocity
KT APPDOWNLOAD
Italy PM Meloni's partner faces backlash for comment on rape
Meloni, who has a young daughter with Giambruno, has not commented on the situation
Photo: Reuters
The partner of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has been accused of victim blaming after comments he made about rape on his television talk show.
Andrea Giambruno, who hosts the "Diario del giorno" (Daily diary) programme on the Rete 4 commercial station, was commenting after a gang rape of a young woman in the Sicilian capital Palermo hit the headlines.
"If you go dancing, you have every right to get drunk — there shouldn't be any kind of misunderstanding and any kind of problem — but if you avoid getting drunk and losing your senses, you might also avoid running into certain problems and coming across a wolf," he said in his programme on Monday evening.
Opposition politicians condemned the comments.
"I say to Giambruno that boys should be educated to show respect, rather than girls taught to be careful. Teach them (males) the value of consent, rather than girls to be wary," said Cecilia D'Elia, a senator with the opposition Partito Democratico.
Giambruno, whose television career has taken off since Meloni became the head of a right-wing government last October, said his comments had been taken out of context to create a "surreal" controversy.
"I didn't say that men are free to rape women who are drunk," he told Corriere della Sera in an interview on Wednesday.
"Some politicians are jumping on a false headline and calling for my suspension, but for what reason? For having told young people not to take drugs?" he added.
Meloni, who has a young daughter with Giambruno, has not commented on the situation.
It is not the first time that Giambruno's comments have caused controversy.
In July, he told German Health Minister Karl Lauterbach "to stay at home, stay in the Black Forest", after Lauterbach questioned the viability of tourism to southern Europe because of intense heat waves.
ALSO READ:
More news from World
The suspect first attacked a tourist couple with a knife and attacked two others with a hammer
The court rejects the former president's claim that he is immune to the lawsuits
Spanish ambassador summoned after Sanchez said he doubted Israel respected the international humanitarian law
As the global race to achieve net-zero emissions intensifies, firms looking to form new alliances and partnerships must be able to outline their ESG strategy and, crucially, explain how they plan to execute it
The Fed and the ECB have made clear that they intend to roll back quantitative easing by gradually reducing their bond holdings
The high death toll among young people partly reflects the fact that nearly half of Gaza’s population is under the age of 18
If no candidate wins a two-thirds majority in the first round, the secret voting then goes to a run-off between the two top bids