League leader Matteo Salvini said as
he presented his new book alongside the rightwing party's newest
and most controversial European election candidate, suspended
anti-gay General Roberto Vannacci, that he liked having an army
general beside him in order to talk about peace.
Vannacci, whose own book slamming gays and other minorities
became a runaway bestseller among conservative Italians, faced
flak earlier this week after apparently calling for separate
school classes for the disabled.
Speaking at the presentation of his book at the Temple of
Hadrian in Rome, Salvini, who has urged negotiations over the
Ukraine war, said "I like to have a general to talk about peace:
one of the central themes of the next five years in Europe will
be war or peace.
"Some European leaders talk wretchedly about sending our
soldiers to fight outside our borders: never in our name a
single Italian, European soldier will go to fight and die
outside our borders.
"And maybe the general, who is a defence expert, will say why".
Vannacci, a 55-year-old former paratrooper commander, is under
disciplinary proceedings ordered by the defence ministry over
his book, 'Il Mondo al Contrario' (The World Back To Front),
slamming gays, feminists, Jews, blacks and other minorities.
The book says that gays are not normal, espouses the Great
Replacement conspiracy theory about mainly Muslim migrants
replacing ethnic Italians, suggests only white people can be
real Italians, and lauds stand-your-ground self-defence laws.
Salvini is deputy premier and transport minister.
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