Tension in the Chamber on the Ascari-Abu Safiya case and the words about Meloni's daughter

Sparks in the Chamber between FdI and M5s on the case of the press conference promoted last week in Montecitorio by the M5s deputy Stefania Ascari to ask for the release of the Palestinian pediatrician detained in Israel, Hussam Abu Safiya. What infuriated Fratelli d'Italia was a passage in the speech in Arabic by the son of the detained doctor, Ilyas, who made a direct appeal to Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, reminding her of the existence of the Geneva Convention and bringing up his daughter.

Standing in defense of the parliamentarian, who has always been committed to the Palestinian cause, was the leader of the M5s Giuseppe Conte himself who spoke of "a shameful political assassination" against Ascari, "who has the only unbearable fault of having gone to the West Bank and not remaining indifferent. Gentlemen, calm down, you are out of your mind", he said, addressing the Melonians.

The leader of the FdI group in the Chamber, Galeazzo Bignami, had written to the president Lorenzo Fontana asking to evaluate disciplinary measures against Ascari, and the latter brought the matter to the attention of the college of police commissioners. The spotlight is on the words of Ilyas Abu Safiya spoken in the Montecitorio press room: "Dear President, when you come home every day you call your daughter Ginevra", "just as you love your daughter, our families also love their children".

The FdI deputy, Sara Kelany, pointed the finger: "Abu Safiya" is "a Palestinian doctor detained in Israel on charges of being a high-level member of the terrorist organization Hamas" and "in the conference, held in Arabic by his son, the minor daughter of Prime Minister Meloni was brought up", later "slammed on social media" in a photo "embraced with her mother next to that of Abu Safiya with her son. This photo it bounced on even extremist sites and social pages." The FnV group leader, Edoardo Ziello, joined the request for measures against the pentastellata.

"The problem is who brought into government an undersecretary for justice who sends messages to a Camorra figurehead! And those things cannot be translated because they cannot be accessed, because you shielded Delmastro", the sharp response from the M5s group leader Riccardo Ricciardi. Conte, shortly afterwards, took things further: "I have heard atrocities that involve racial discrimination".

From Avs, who in October had proposed Hussam Abu Safiya for the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, Marco Grimaldi intervened: "We don't take lessons from anyone, not from you and not from Ziello who, with those who would become FnV, called to the Chamber some criminals and fascists who asked for remigration".