ROME – The Minister of Education and Merit in Italy, Giuseppe Valditara, is facing pushback after blaming immigrants for femicides.  

 The death of university student, Giulia Cecchettin, created shock-waves in Italy after her body was found brutally stabbed by her ex-boyfriend Filipo. Since then, the Cecchettin Foundation was created to honor her death and combat gender violence. The Foundation met on November 18 at the Chamber of Deputies in Palazzo Montecitorio.

 Valditara was one of the speakers at the Giulia Cecchettin Foundation. He stated that the fight against patriarchy is an ideological one, “we have two paths in front of us: one is concrete and inspired by constitutional values, the other is ideological culture.”

 The Minister continued his speech by stating, "It must be clear to every newcomer, to all those who want to live with us, the scope of our Constitution, which does not allow discrimination based on sex. We must not pretend not to see that the increase in sexual violence is also linked to forms of marginalization and deviance that in some way derive from illegal immigration".

 The fault he placed on migrants caused an uproar from the Democratic party. A Democratic Senator, Marco Meloni, expressed his disgust towards Valditara’s statement, "Valditara's words are indecent. To exploit a tragedy - or rather the murder of a girl by a man who considered her 'his' - for one's own ideological ends, goes beyond the threshold of all decency. Today Valditara said words unworthy of a minister, especially of Education. I am ashamed as a man and as a representative of the institutions.”

 Since the Foundation meeting, Valdiatara has denied the comment he made about immigrants and believes it is being misinterpreted, "I never said that femicide is the fault of immigrants. I said something different, that in our country there is a phenomenon of increasing sexual violence, which is another very sad phenomenon. They are unfortunately unequivocal and I am sorry that someone has altered them or has not known them. There is a worrying increase in sexual violence. And what did I say? I said that this sexual violence is also contributed to, it is also important, by the marginality and deviance resulting from irregular immigration. So, I did not say that the immigrant is the cause of this, I said marginality and deviance".

 In 2024, there has already been around 100 femicides in Italy by the hands of male partners. Giulia’s father, Gino Cecchettin opened the meeting of the Foundation by stating, "It's an incredible emotion because, a year after the news that my Giulia had passed away, we are giving birth to something.”

 After Valditara’s controversial speech, Gino confidently turned the floor over to Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni by asking her opinion, "As a woman, the Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, I think has seen in her career many aspects that women are unfortunately forced to deal with and I think that the Prime Minister has seen machismo on several occasions. If she has come to be Prime Minister, she has certainly come to face and overcome some issues. She can certainly give useful advice to all women in Italy.”

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