GENOA - The city councilor of Genoa, Francesca Ghio, told her story of the abuse she faced at 12 years old. When Giorgia Meloni called Ghio to express her apologies, she took it as an opportunity to express her anger towards the Prime Minister and her lack of action regarding gender violance.

 This past Tuesday, Francesca Ghio, spoke on the abuse she faced at a young age in response to the topic of femicide presented by her colleague Arianna Viscogliosi. At first, many believed Ghio was reading a past news story, but it shockingly turned out to be her own horrifying recount. She told the council, "I was 12 years old, I lived in the heart of wealthy Genoa, when I was physically and psychologically raped within the walls of my home".

 She then reveled, “Does it matter whether it happened to me or someone else? In any case, yes, I am that 12-year-old girl”, she continued, “I never reported that man, a Genoese manager, our good boy, I didn’t even know what a report was at 12 years old. I look back today and after decades nothing has changed. Men continue to rape. In the complicit silence of a society that doesn’t provide the tools, that doesn’t want to stop and understand.”

 Her horrific yet powerful story caught the attention of the Head Counciler, Giorgia Meloni. Ghio posted on Instagram that she received a phone call from the Prime Minister in regards to the story she shared with the council. Within the Instagram caption, she shared her outradge towards the conversation, “I spoke for 20 minutes on the phone with President Giorgia Meloni. If I had indulged the reason for her phone call, it probably would have lasted a few seconds. Just enough time to let her convey her compliments for my courage and her closeness to the pain, but I don’t accept this logic, I won’t back down an inch and I also used this call to say so. To those who politically want my attention, telling me that I was good, I reply that they didn’t understand the essence of my gesture.”

 Ghio's post continues by explaining how the abuse she faced caused a “death” within her childhood, “I am Francesca, and I died at 12 years old and because of people like her who, despite having the power in their hands, despite having the tools to change, choose to look the other way continually finding a scapegoat and de-responsibilizing the institutions, placing the blame on the individual. The blame to avoid solving the problem, hiding it behind rhetorical words: they are healthy children of a sick system, it is not a slogan, it is reality.”

 The post ended by expressing the urgent need for a change in Italy, “I am a mother; she [Meloni] told me on the phone. I am a mother too. And I fight for my daughter and for hers, for the sons and daughters of all of us to ensure that there is no more avoidable pain. Telling me, Gino, Chiara, all the broken hearts and bones that you are sorry, only helps you feel better about what you have or have not done. We need a change. We are the loud and fierce cry of all those people who no longer have a voice.”

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