Ravenna, Italy
The victory of Giorgia Meloni in Italy with a huge majority of seats in parliament has prompted the expected political indignation. It’s not just the international press, either. Yesterday, for instance, my 17-year-old son Francesco Winston told me that at his school – we live near Ravenna in the Red Romagna, a hotbed of ex-communists – all his companions were in mourning. Why, I asked? ‘They say she’s going to abolish abortion,’ he explained. Why do they believe that? I asked. ‘They’re badly informed,’ he replied. Bravo figlio mio, bravo!
Meloni would not abort an unborn child herself – she told me when I interviewed her in Rome last month – but nor would she impose her view on any other woman. She has no plans to change Italy’s 1978 law which allows abortion on demand up to 13 weeks. But she would like to give cash support to women forced to have abortions for economic reasons.
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