Calling your mayor “Cetto La Quale” is not defamation, but is completely within the rights of political criticism. Especially if – as in the case handled by Cassation in a sentence published last November 13 – citizens “want to demonstrate a form of misunderstood thoroughness, indifference, in fact, in the management of the public safety regulations promulgated for the control of the pandemic”. In short, the character born of the comic creativity of Antonio Albanese was cleared by the Supreme Court, “who became – as the judges explained – a universally known satirical figure, showing the deformation of the ruling class outlined in exasperated and paradoxical terms”; an “extreme caricature of the average, or rather mediocre, Italian politician”.
THE FACTS
Last January 24, Mr. Sabatino Chiaravalle was found guilty by the L’Aquila Court of Appeal for threatening, insulting a public official, and defaming the then mayor of his town, Barete, which has a population of more than 600 inhabitants. The whole story begins with an email sent by the 63-year-old man, during the Covid-19 pandemic, to the Municipal Government, addressed to the Mayor, and reads as follows: «For the attention of Mr. Cetto La Quale… Please inform me why the transhumation permit was issued with the motivation of having to feed two chickens, and this cannot be obtained with life-saving drugs. Wishing us luck in advance, I thank you.” This email had been preceded by a visit by the mayor himself, «accompanied by at least 5 people, to the defendant’s residence – explained the defense – to “verify compliance with the measures that had not yet come into effect in the area”, at the end of which he ordered the Chiaravelle family to leave the municipal territory». The house check that at that time – we read in the sentence – could not in fact be “traceable back to the mayor’s official actions, given that the circulation restrictions” that were then imposed to reduce contagion Covid-19 does not yet apply on the relevant date.
Regarding the epithet “Cetto La Quale” addressed to the mayor of Barete, according to the Court of Cassation, «there does not appear to be an unmotivated derogatory attack, aimed at degrading his human and professional figure in public, resulting, on the contrary, in criticizing his technical-administrative work, through the evocation of a notoriously non-existent character, therefore in the joking and ironic form typical of satire, although characterized by a caustic tone, that combines the exercise. about the right to political criticism.”
MOTIVATION
But there’s more. «It cannot be denied – we read in the sentence – that the mayor’s initiative cannot be considered expressive of the public munus (interests, ed.), that the defendant was visited by the municipal delegation inappropriately and that the sending of the email immediately after this episode, was considered provocative. It seems difficult to exclude that in calling the mayor by the nickname “Cetto La Quale” the defendant did not want to hint at a form of misunderstood scrupulousness, indifference, in fact, in the management of the public safety regulations promulgated for the control of the pandemic”. The figure created by Antonio Albanese has, in fact, become «a kind of terrible symbol of the politics of improvisation – explains the college of the fifth criminal section of the Supreme Court – and rampant indifference in reference to public communication and the emergency management of Covid-19. A character of the caliber, therefore. its symbolic meaning is further realized in moments of historical reference.” In the words of Cetto La Quale: «Italians are very good at following people who bark. And I bark very well!
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