ROME -- Famiglia Cristiana, a Catholic weekly has attacked Nichi Vendola, the ex-governor of Puglia, over the arrival of a baby born in California via a surrogate mother, to Vendola and his partner Eddy Testa, saying “He’s made this child an orphan, away from his mother, he’s gone against the Constitution and the laws of the Republic.”

 Lega Nord leader Matteo Salvini was another one to blast Vendola, accusing him of “disgusting selfishness,” along with Maurizio Gasparri.  Their positions were expressed so strongly that it led President of the Chamber Laura Boldrini to say she had “heard coarse and vulgar comments. It’s sordid to say such things.  I wish [Vendola and Testa] all the best and I hope this attack on their choice will stop.  Nobody can express such harsh opinions against a little newborn child.”

 The Catholic paper, however, has gone one step further in their condemnation of the SEL president in a commentary signed by the editor in chief Francesco Anfossi, “To fulfil his desires the champion of the poor and oppressed went abroad a wealthy man, orphaned a baby of his mother and eluded the Constitution and the laws of the Republic.”  This follows the same lines as Mario Adinolfi, who described the newborn baby Tobia as “a little boy rendered motherless by two rich left-wingers.”

 Paola Binetti, a member of Area Popolare asks what the magistrates’ decision would be in the face of an adoption request by Vendola, “Would they legitimise this type of adoption, definitively ignoring the cries of alarm from the Senate against surrogacy, regarded as a barbaric practice that allows the sale of children and demeans the woman, deeply humiliating her dignity as a mother?”

 The Democratic Party, of which Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi is a part, are preparing to propose new legislation on adoptions, including those of gay parents, after the ‘stepchild adoption’ clause was removed from the Civil Union bill last week, as many parties had said they would not pass the bill with that clause.  Interior Minister and AP leader Angelino Alfano has said that this would be a breach of the agreement reached between his and the Democratic Party before the vote to win its support.

 “Scrapping adoptions doesn’t just go for this bill, but in general” said Alfano, “We wouldn’t have voted for the law if we thought that dropping stepchild adoption was provisional in the view of another law.  We are absolutely unmoveable on this.”  This comes after his comments once the bill was passed that they had stopped it being a “revolution against nature.”

 Vendola retaliated to the uproar caused by the baby’s arrival, saying, “There is no facist-thug political vulgarity that can disturb the great joy that the birth of a baby brings.”  He also said that the birth mother of Tobia “is an integral part of our family and will continue to be so.”