The Italian senator Raffaella Paita, national coordinator of the left-wing party Italia Viva (IV), caused controversy by characterizing motherhood as a “embarrassing delay".
His criticisms were directed at fellow senator Lavinia Mennuni, from the Brothers of Italy (FdI) party, who recently argued that motherhood should be women's main aspiration.
Mennuni expressed on a social network that “girls’ first aspiration should be motherhood”, arguing that there is a need and a mission to bring children into the world, who will become the future Italian citizens.
For Paita, Francesco's mother, the words by Mennuni reflect ideas from an obscurantist past.
Representative Chiara Appendino, representative of the anti-system party 5 Star Movement (M5S), questioned the FdI's alleged nostalgia for medieval civilization. “Why does the FdI have this nostalgia for the Middle Ages?” asked the former mayor of Turin
The political dispute over perspectives on motherhood continues to intensify in Italy, as the country faces the lowest number of births in its history. In 2022, Italy recorded just 393 births.
The Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has already emphasized that combating the chronic decline in birth rates is a “absolute priority” from the government.
