“A woman’s first desire? It should be to be a mother”: Lavinia Mennuni’s words are blowing like a storm

The main role of women should be to stay at home and give birth to babies for the “nation” and prevent the difficult “ethnic substitution” practiced by “invading immigrants”. This is what many representatives of Italians in the government of the country are now advocating, who, not surprisingly, have created a ministry for the “birth rate”.

But what still leaves us speechless, a few hours before the start of 2024, is the constant repetition of this slightly retro idea like a mantra, going so far as to blame the individual preferences of the people who choose it – as is their right. putting it into the children’s world.

Lavinia Mennuni: “Motherhood must be cool”

The person who made us take another romantic leap into the past was Lavinia Mennuni from Fratelli d’Italia. The former Rome alderman today lives in Palazzo Madama and is a member of the parliament’s committee on childhood and adolescence. Mennuni, the guest of the Coffee Break program, said: “My mother always told me: ‘Remember that whatever you want to do (and I wanted to do politics since I was 12 years old), your first wish must be to be a mother. And we must remind our daughters of this, otherwise the risk is that in the name of professional satisfaction , which I hope and it is true, we forget that there is a need and a mission, let’s call it that. We must give birth to children who will be future Italian citizens. We must help institutions, the Vatican, associations to make motherhood ‘cool’ again. 18 and 20 “We must ensure that girls and boys aged 18-18 want to get married and start families. Then the state will come.”

In short, for the representative of the party of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who is a mother of one child and cannot benefit from the bonuses that her own government offers only to low-income, promising families with three or more children. Even “Italian citizens” is a “duty”.

Valente (Pd): “Would you give the same advice to your male thread?”

As expected, the Fratelli d’Italia senator’s words sparked protests from many colleagues. “We believe that the greatest desire for a girl is to freely choose what to do with her life, whether and how to self-actualize, whether and how to participate in a relationship, whether and how to eventually become a mother.” Democratic Party senator Valeria Valente, who attacked her colleague, says: I don’t think Mennuni would give the same advice to his son. Should having kids be ‘cool’ again? Women can have children if they have a job that satisfies them, a wife or husband who is willing to share the family’s burden, and effective welfare that provides kindergartens and full-time schools. “The truth is that, instead of working towards these goals, the majority and the Meloni government continue to believe that the decline in the birth rate, although a deeply social problem, is a personal problem for Italian girls and women.”

Paita (Italia Viva): “Mennuni’s shameful backwardness”

Raffella Paita, national coordinator of Italia Viva, is very harsh: “Lavinia Mennuni’s words about motherhood – she explains – reveal the true understanding that Fratelli d’Italia has of women in society: not heroes of their fate, reduced to pure biological functions. It is important to be a mother Although it is an element, female identity cannot be reduced only to motherhood. Decades have passed since the dark period when society condemned women to this role alone. However, Lavinia Mennuni does not seem to have noticed this. Her words reflect the ideas of a reactionary past, a shameful past that has fortunately been overcome and condemnation of backwardness.”

Appendino (M5S): “These are nostalgia for the Middle Ages”

“Why is there this nostalgia for the Middle Ages in Fratelli d’Italia?” Chiara Appendino, former mayor of Turin and 5 Star Movement parliamentarian, asks instead: “What does Senator Mennuni say, according to which a woman’s greatest desire and mission is to be a mother, to give our daughters aspirations that go beyond that? A handbook of stereotypes? “Let’s convey not the darkness of the mind, but the freedom to dream and the ways to realize themselves as they wish.”

Rampelli: “The only thought of the left is against those who believe in the family”

A man comes to Lavinia Mennuni’s aid, her party comrade Fabio Rampelli (hopefully not offended by the term “comrade”, ed.). The deputy head of the department launches a counter-attack: “For the sole thought of the left, which wants to give birth to a child on behalf of third parties with a rented womb or wants homosexual parenthood – says Rampelli – Everything is possible and can be tried, except to bring the child’s world into the oldest and most unique form there is: a man and through the union of a woman. Especially for the only woman who is biologically capable of giving life, the single thought The Left always imposes the denial of what is most valuable for all humanity, a function given to it by nature, not by patriarchy.” What “one thought” prevented Mennuni and Rampelli from arguing that the main “mission” of young women should be to give birth to children remains a mystery.