Work decree, the 5S Cherchi in the Chamber mentions Auschwitz. Embarrassment and controversy, then an apology

“When I read ‘work decree’ I think of the phrase on the door of Auschwitz, ‘Work makes you free’. A mental cruelty…”. In the Chamber of Deputies, the discussion on the decree of May 1st was underway. A provision much contested by the opposition, so much so as to push the honorable member of the M5S Susanna Cerchi to compare it to the sentence placed above the gate of the Nazi concentration camp of Auschwitz.

A comparison that has sparked the controversy of the majority. The deputy of the Brothers of Italy Walter Rizzetto he immediately lashed out at the pentastellata: “It is unacceptable!”, he shouted. The Deputy Speaker of the House Sergio Costa, who directed the work of the Chamber, was forced to intervene by calling his colleague back: “Let’s not name Auschwitz like that, please, otherwise we’ll bump into sensitivities that there’s no need to touch in the slightest”. Words that did not serve to extinguish the controversy. “I said I’m sorry, isn’t that enough?” asked the deputy, addressing those who contested her. Rizzetto’s answer: “Absolutely not”.

Speaking shortly after, the FdI exponent said: “Susanna Cherchi of the M5S slips into a grotesque, dramatic and unsustainable comparison of the dl with the sentence that the deportees read when they entered Auschwitz. Here there is clearly a freedom to be able to say and assume responsibility for what is said. What is said, in a very serious way, will have to be sanctioned by the presidency in a much heavier way than the occupations of classrooms. And he concludes embittered: “It is the most serious thing that I have heard in eleven years here” . Other party comrades echo him. Sara Kelany speaks of “unprecedented disfigurement”, while second Gimmi Cangiano Cherchi’s words “are shameful, disrespectful, scandalous and dangerous”.

The apologies of the person directly concerned arrive shortly “for the improper comparison made during my speech in the general discussion of the Labor decree”, said the 5S exponent. “Apologies – she continued – which I also intend to address to colleagues in my parliamentary group. Anyone who knows me and my story knows that it was not my intention to offend anyone’s sensibility.”