Italy is a weird country. Its justice system works very slowly. Getting to a final verdict is like watching paint dry. But when it comes to politics, somehow the courts are very speedy.
A lot of people here were shocked when the Italian journalist Giulia Cortese was convicted of defamation and ordered to pay €5,000 in damages, over two tweets that judges said amounted to “body shaming”. The person she had to pay? Giorgia Meloni.
Cortese had mocked Meloni’s height. It is no secret that our prime minister isn’t tall – you only need to look at photos of her. However, since Meloni started wearing super-chic high heels, she now does appear much taller.
But what surprised so many people was that Italian judges, who have so much on their plate, have time to take on a complaint like this, and that they came to such a speedy verdict (the reporter could still appeal against it, though it wouldn’t be worth the legal costs).
What’s more, the fine is frankly a ridiculous amount: the Italian judicial system was put in motion for a sum that is not even a fraction of what lawyers get paid, and besides, Cortese wrote the tweets in 2021. And meanwhile, there are much more important cases pending in the courts involving organised crime and the mafia that can take years to bear fruit, sometimes even decades.
When the verdict came out, people were split between the right wing, pro-Meloni camp, and the leftists who absolutely can’t stand her. Because in this country it all comes down to taking sides depending on your political affiliation. It doesn’t really matter if the issue at stake is right or wrong, or whether it’s important or trivial.
I was sitting at an outdoor table of a bar near the Pantheon the other morning, eavesdropping on the usual morning chit-chat. A stout old lady sipping a Martini aperitivo was commenting with a friend on the fact that “Meloni’s height is a fact”.
“I mean, what’s the big deal? If she’s short she is short, it’s the simple truth and nobody needs a ruler to prove that. Why should she feel accused or body shamed by a silly tweet?”
The old lady went on to say that “sooner or later you’ll be fined in this country if you say out loud that it’s raining, when it is, just because the government wants it always to be sunny”.
Her friend, a younger woman intent on gulping down fried mozzarella bites, stressed how in Italy “there is no longer freedom of press, just like during fascism. And the government, with all the problems there are in the country, prefers to waste time targeting reporters who just do their job.”
The butcher’s shop near my house is in a much more right wing neighbourhood, and there was sympathy for “poor Meloni”. Everyone was defending her. A young lad who had just bought 3kg of bloody T-bone steaks was furious.
“I think it is very mean to describe anyone in such a way. If our prime minister is not as tall as Wonder Woman, then why must she be made fun of? Nobody should ever be attacked because of their physical appearance,” he said. In his view the reporter should have been fined much more than €5,000.
It is outrageous that in Italy people are taken to court for petty things, while the important cases tend to fade into the background, or are ignored.
I remember a story once where a woman was called “a bitch” in a public place by the lover of her husband; she appealed all the way to the constitutional court and won the defamation case.
In Italy, any little event can become litigious, but you never know how it will pan out, or how many years will pass before a sentence is given – unless you’re the PM, of course.
Silvia Marchetti is a freelance reporter based in Rome
