DISINFO: Speaker of Italian Parliament welcomed a neo-Nazi in 2018
SUMMARY
The liberal politicians of an increasingly decadent West who see fascism everywhere do not realise that they are paying honours to declared Nazis and neo-Nazis.
A situation reminiscent of a recent event in Canada took place in Italy in 2018. At that time, the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, Laura Boldrini, known for her strong advocacy of political correctness, welcomed Andriy Parubiy, a well known neo-Nazi, with full honours.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation about Nazis and Ukraine and the decadent West.
In 2018, Andriy Parubiy served as the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's parliament. There are no Nazis in either the government or the Ukrainian parliament. Even the far-right 'Right Sector'—often labeled as "fascists" or "Nazis" by pro-Kremlin outlets—secured only 1.8% of the votes in recent elections which is well below the threshold required to enter the parliament. Ukraine's electorate voted in favour of unity and moderation over extremism.
In his younger years, Parubiy was a member of the Svoboda Party, a conservative, nationalist, and right-leaning party. He departed from Svoboda just before the 2004 Orange Revolution. By 2007, he was elected to parliament as a representative of the liberal, pro-European 'Nasha Ukraina' bloc of former president Viktor Yushchenko. More information about the Svoboda party can be found here.
Five years later, Parubiy was re-elected to parliament, this time representing the Batkivshchyna party, led by former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko. During the Maidan protests, he took on the role of 'commander' for the tent city situated in Kyiv’s Independence Square. Following Russia's annexation of Crimea and the subsequent war in eastern Ukraine, Parubiy assumed leadership of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council. By 2016, he had been elected as the Speaker of the Ukrainian parliament.
See further debunking of the claims from Stopfake.
Regarding the reference to recent events in Canada, in September 2023, its Prime Minister Justin Trudeau apologised for inviting Gunko to Parliament, stating, 'I want to reiterate how deeply sorry Canada is for the situation this placed President Zelenskyy and the Ukrainian delegation in. It's extremely troubling that this significant oversight is being exploited by Russia and its allies to spread misleading propaganda about Ukraine's cause,' he said.
For the full case and related debunking read here
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