Brian Molko, Placebo singer, criticised Giorgia Meloni during a concert at the Sonic Park festival last week.
Italian prosecutors have opened an investigation into the Placebo frontman Brian Molko for publicly calling the Italian prime minister “racist” and “fascist”, according to various media reports.
The band were performing last week at the Sonic Park festival in Stupinigi outside Turin when Molko hurled insults from the stage about Giorgia Meloni.
“Giorgia Meloni, piece of shit, fascist, racist,” Molko shouted in Italian, as seen in fan videos from the concert posted on social media.
What could the worst sentence be for Placebo singer?
Italy’s criminal code allows for small fines of up to €5,000 for anyone who “publicly defames the Republic”. That general statement includes the government, parliament and the army.
Molko will be in good company. Italian activist Roberto Saviano, author of Neapolitan mob exposé “Gomorrah”, is in the midst of a defamation lawsuit. Meloni brought the action against him for calling her “a bastard”. He was verbally attacking the PM’s stance on migrants.
However, the most significant issue could Placebo’s upcoming concert on Sardinia on 1st August. A right-wing member of the Sassari city council, Mariolino Andria, has launched an appeal asking the city’s mayor, Nanni Campus, also a right-winger, “what action the administration intends to take to avoid an unpleasant replica of what happened in Stupingi and how you intend to censor [the possibility] of such an event.”
Meloni, 46, heads Italy’s most right-wing government since the second world war.
