“The spectacle that took place this morning … was despicable. Once again, a minister was prevented from expressing their ideas,” she wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “It’s time to say enough is enough.”
She accused the protesters of censoring Ms Roccella, saying they had “stopped her from talking because they don’t agree with her ideas”. She called on all political parties to condemn “with no ifs or buts” the actions of the demonstrators.
The president of Italy, Sergio Mattarella, also condemned the demonstration, saying that “wanting to silence those who think differently is at odds with the foundations of civilisation and of our constitution.”
But many opposition MPs refused to criticise the protesters.
“Protest is the basis of democracy,” said Angelo Bonelli, an MP from the Green-Left Alliance. He accused the government of allowing “religious-fundamentalist organisations” to enter abortion clinics and said he fully supported the demonstrators, many of whom were women.
Critics of the government say that abortion is one of the areas in which it is beginning to show hard-Right views.
