Gasparri comes between Vannacci and Egonu and asphalts the old general: “Empty head”

From the celebration of the gold medal of the women’s volleyball team at the 2024 Paris Olympics to the controversy, it’s a very short step. We’re not talking about a refereeing or “technical” dispute: judging by the sound of the comments on social media, the ones arguing are Roberto Vannacci and Maurizio Gasparri. The first, a new deputy under the League banner, returns to one of his strong points, namely the “non-Italian physical characteristics” of the volleyball player Paula Egonu. The second, a historic Italian senator, brands the general as “empty-headed”. This back and forth is turning into a perfect socio-political clash of the summer.

It all starts with Vannacci’s words. After Italvolley’s victory at the Olympics, he writes on X: “Our volleyball girls made history! With determination, courage and a tremendous amount of heart, they won the Olympic gold medal and brought Italy to the top of the podium”. But the web does not forget. And so dozens of users ignored Vannacci’s initial statements about Egonu: “Seeing a very good dark-skinned volleyball player does not immediately identify her as Italian”. Words related to the memes that immediately went viral and brought the #Vannacci hashtag closer to the trending topics #italvolley and paris2024#. The general, as expected, was not impressed and resumed: “I have never doubted that Paola Egonu is a very good Italian athlete. I continue to reiterate that her physical characteristics do not represent the majority of Italians. But I have never doubted that she competes for us with her nationality and talent.”

Gasparri, a long-time Italian senator, goes straight to the Northern League deputy. “It takes Vannacci’s undeniable talent to criticize Paola Egonu on the day of our volleyball athletes’ Olympic triumph,” he writes. Fortunately, the former general De Gobineau acts like ‘de noantri’ (if he ignores this, he can consult Wikipedia, a source of learning at your disposal) and we talk about ‘bodily characteristics’. And he insists: “I read in a newspaper that he boasted about pretending to lose his balance in order to touch his hands in the metro, and I quote: ‘That they can tell by touching whether black people’s skin is more wrinkled than ours.’ On the other hand, I met a gentleman in Seville who was described as Vannacci’s barber, less well-known than the barber made famous by Rossini (in this case I also refer Vannacci to internet sources), from whom I learned this at the time. The inevitable contact of the hands with the famous skull during shampooing made the barber suspect that there was a void inside the ‘box’. But as they say in the famous work, ‘slander is child’s play’ and the barber will do it. You lied: Somini nullum par elogium Or not?

In this case, there are already words that caused the #Gssparri hashtag to rise among trending topics and people who ironically praise him as the new leader of the left.