Meloni is definitely far-right, and comes from a historically fascist party. So he is just stating the facts here.

Meloni, 46, heads Italy’s most rightwing government since the second world war. Italy’s criminal code punishes with a fine ranging from €1,000 to €5,000 (£858 to £4,290) anyone who “publicly defames the republic”, which includes the government, parliament, the courts and the army.

Wow. Ok then...I guess technically he did violate that law and so it shouldn't matter how fucked up that law is with respect to an investigation being done about it, but can we still talk about how fucked up that law is in an EU country? Yeah I know Italy's a little bit different and such, but goddamn.

W would have loved to have had something like this when the Dixie Chicks got out of line over Iraq (though his response quoted there seems oddly...reasonable? ehh, fuck W): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dixie_Chicks_controversy

Somebody once remarked that it's funny how everyone acts like Italians all walk around being Mario Brothers but the Italians just roll with it.

It's because some Italians were the people who invented Fascism as a formal political movement, and you know damn well how that ended up, so if going "It's-a me, Giancarlo!" every once in a while gets the world to forget, they'll take it.

But then this happens, and you have to start talking about spaghetti as much as possible.