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The
European lawmakers in Italy’s main opposition party are suing the
controversial new head of the country’s public broadcasting service,
after he claimed in an interview with Haaretz last week that they received their funding from Jewish-American billionaire George Soros.
Lawyers
are finalizing the lawsuit against Marcello Foa on behalf of 26 members
of the European Parliament affiliated with Italy’s center-left
Democratic Party, Patrizia Toia, the head of the party’s delegation to
the parliament, said Thursday.
Foa, who has close links to the populist coalition government in Rome,
said in the interview, published last Friday, that the frequent
criticism of Soros by far-right movements across the world was not
tainted by anti-Semitism. Instead, he said, it was rooted solely in the
actions of the progressive philanthropist.
“Had
he been attacked as a Jew it would be anti-Semitism, but this is not
what happens and I think it is offensive to use anti-Semitism as an
alibi to stifle such a debate,” Foa said, adding: “Otherwise, in the long run you are just encouraging and legitimizing anti-Semitism.”Foa’s next comment soon became front-page news in Italy: “A while ago, the news came out that Soros financed
an enormous number of European Parliament members – including the
entire delegation of the Democratic Party,” he said, citing an example
of Soros’ alleged activities
Haaretz found no evidence to support that statement.
Foa’s claim was seemingly based on widely debunked stories, circulated last year in populist and Euroskeptic media sources. These cited a report by a consulting firm that
listed members of the European Parliament seen as potentially inclined
to support the values of Soros’ Open Society Foundations. The firm’s
report made no mention of financing these politicians.
Open
Society lobbies European institutions like multiple other civil society
movements, NGOs and companies, said Bruno Selun, author of the report
and director of the consulting firm, Kumquat Consult. “When a new
legislature starts, it's perfectly normal for all these groups to look
for the MEPs most likely to listen to them, so that instead of knocking
on 751 doors at the European Parliament they can concentrate their
efforts on a smaller pool of politicians,” Selun told Haaretz.
The
report was based on publicly available information and its meaning has
often been misrepresented and distorted after it was leaked, he said.
Populist
and far-right groups from Hungary to Italy and the United States have
made Soros the target of hostile media campaigns, and on Tuesday an explosive device was found in a mailbox at the billionaire’s New York home.
The Hungarian-born Holocaust survivor often features as the main character in conspiracy theories that
depict him as a gray eminence pulling the strings of anything from the
financial industry to immigration or other progressive causes.
Critics have pointed out how much these hoaxes resemble anti-Semitic conspiracy theories that view the Jews as controlling the world.
Foa’s
allegation last week was immediately denounced by the Democratic Party
as “fake news” and caused a political storm in Italy, with leading
opposition figures calling on the 55-year-old to resign from his new
post as head of public broadcaster Rai.
“The
president of Rai is a liar, walking fake news,” former prime minister
and Democratic Party leader Matteo Renzi told a political rally in
Florence last Sunday. Referring to Foa’s appointment, he said it was “an
unprecedented scandal in the history of the Italian media.” He
concluded that “not even Berlusconi had come to this,” a reference to
Italy’s controversial former prime minister and media tycoon Silvio
Berlusconi.
“The
accusations spread by Foa are very serious, libelous and damaging to my
reputation as a journalist and European lawmaker. We’ll see him in
court,” said David Sassoli, a former Rai journalist and now a politician
for the Democratic Party and vice-president of the European Parliament.
Foa
wrote in a Facebook post last Friday that he had clearly distanced
himself from “any form of racism and extremism” in the interview, and
that the wave of criticism was politically motivated.
While
he did not deny saying that Soros had given money to the Italian
politicians, he conceded, in a later addition to the post the same day,
that “naturally, being considered close, as that report noted, is very
different from being financed.”
The
head of Italy’s public broadcaster is considered an authoritative
figure, charged with ensuring that journalists for state radio and TV
channels remain independent and unbiased – despite the country’s often
chaotic and polarized political scene.
In
a front page Op-Ed commenting on the Haaretz interview, the
left-leaning daily La Repubblica cited past, storied Rai presidents and
asked: “Can you imagine any of them telling an authoritative foreign
newspaper that an entire parliamentary delegation of the main opposition
party of his own country is secretly supported by a finance tycoon?”
Foa
worked as an executive for a Swiss Italian-language media group and as a
conservative columnist for Il Giornale, a daily owned by Berlusconi. He
was tapped to head Rai by Rome’s new governing coalition, formed last
spring by the far-right, anti-immigration League party and the
grassroots anti-establishment populists of the Five Star Movement. His
appointment came after a long, fierce political battle and was seen as a
big win for the new populist government.
Foa is considered one of the ideologues behind the rise of an international populist movement and introduced League leader and Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini to former Donald Trumpadviser Steve Bannon during one of the latter’s recent trips to Europe.
Foa’s confirmation process over the summer was a stormy affair, with Italian and international media scrutinizing his past work as a journalist. He was accused of helping spread fake news, such as the hoax that Hillary Clinton participated in satanic dinners before the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
He was also criticized for backing conspiracy theories about the
purported dangers of vaccines and for claiming that some gay rights
activists were trying to “eradicate the natural sexual identity” of the
majority.
During
his Haaretz interview, Foa acknowledged some past mistakes but said
those statements had been cherry-picked and distorted as part of a
political smear campaign against him. He insisted that he supports gay
rights and does not back anti-vaccine campaigns, but simply looks at all
issues with a critical eye.
Foa
said he was outraged that he had been accused of divulging false
information as he had long styled himself as a crusader against fake
news. The main goal of his visit to Israel last week was to deliver a
lecture at the Italian cultural institute in Tel Aviv on the threat fake
news poses to democracy.
However,
while Foa acknowledges there are hoaxes and extremist statements online
and in the independent media, he insists the main problem today lies in
the bias of the mainstream media. He alleges that it often produces
fabricated or manipulated news to favor the powers that be, thus pushing
people to look for alternative sources.
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