Renzi loses case against Vissani who compared him to Hitler. He had asked for compensation of 435,000 euros
Gianfranco Vissani did not defame Matteo Renzi, comparing him to Adolf Hitler and criticizing him as a “destroyer of the Democratic Party”, and therefore is not required to pay damages to the senator and leader of Italia Viva. This was established by the judge of the Civil Court of Florence, Susanna Zanda, with a sentence issued on Thursday 9 February, in the presence of Renzi himself. The former secretary of the Democratic Party, assisted by the lawyers Lorenzo Pellegrini, Massimo Cesaroni and Niccolò Seghi, intervened personally during the hearing to defend his reasons, while Vissani was absent. Renzi had compensation of 435,000 euros. The chef was defended by the lawyers Cinzia Ammirati and Roberta Arditi.
The facts date back to 29 March 2018 when the chef intervening in the television program “Quinta Colonna” on Rete 4conducted by the journalist Paolo Del Debbio, expressed his opinion on the results of the political elections of the previous 4 March, which had recorded a conspicuous drop in the consents of the Democratic Party, of which Renzi was secretary, going from about 40% of the European elections to about 19% of the consents.
To the question “Why, in your opinion, is Renzi finished?”, Vissani’s answer was: “It’s not that it’s finished… he just did worse than Hitler. Nobody did worse than Hitler, he did it!”. Immediately after the study’s comments on the rapprochement with Hitler, the chef added: “Why not? He destroyed a party, brought it to less than 19%”.
Renzi loses the case with Vissani. The judge there was no defamation
According to judge Zanda there was no defamation, as Renzi claimed, because it was a political criticism expressed by Gianfranco Vissani “in strong and pungent tones”. “The juxtaposition of the destruction of the democratic party which goes from 40% to less than 19% to the figure of Hitler, in turn the destroyer of a population of six million Jews, however strong and transmodant – writes the judge in the sentence – appears however linked to that certain exceptional historical fact of the 2018 elections, which expresses a hemorrhage of consensus the likes of which had not been seen for many years; the opinion of the chef/columnist, often called on television lounges, who had recalled the greatest destroyer, namely Hitler , was not suitable for its entire content, to damage Renzi’s reputation, because the sense of the approach to Hitler had been explained contextually by Vissani in terms of a blatant massacre of votes and not of human beings”.
In the sentence, judge Zanda also writes: “the association with Hitler was clearly referred to the serious loss of consensus of the democratic party led by Renzi and therefore to his considered role of ‘destroyer’ broadly understood and compared to the figure of Hitler. We are therefore in the presence of a political critique, expressed in strong and pungent tones, and certainly in the light of Vissani’s complete declarations in that context, no listener of media diligence would have been induced to perceive in that juxtaposition the equalization of Matteo Renzi to the Hitler exterminator of the Jewish people; the expressive form has been exaggerated and would even be incontinent if it had limited itself to being a mere political critique; the fact is, however, that it was not a mere political criticism because Vissani was neither a political opponent of Renzi, held to expressive continence, nor an ordinary citizen. Vissani had been interviewed as an ‘opinionist’ and where therefore the public interest comes into play in hearing the specific opinion of the interviewee in his interpretation of that fact, concerning the party led by Matteo Renzi”.
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