Female ministers and opposition condemn leaflet from League members in southern Italy on the ‘natural role’ of women

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Representatives of the far-right League in southern Italy have provoked fury after producing an explicitly sexist leaflet to mark International Women’s Day.

It was intended to be a dedication to women, but the pamphlet instead takes aim at those who “offend women’s dignity” by impeding their “natural role” of “supporting life and the family”.

It contains a list of six ways in which it says what it calls the natural role of women is harmed, including by “those who claim self-determination that arouses rancorous attitudes towards men” or who support laws that would allow same-sex couples to declare themselves as a child’s parents on some official forms.

The leaflet ends with a message saying that women have “a great social mission to fulfil in regards the survival of our nation”.

Members of the opposition centre-left Democratic party said the flyer “aimed to take women back to the Middle Ages”.

It is expected to be handed out at a League party stand in the Calabrian city of Crotone on Friday, as the achievements of women are celebrated around the world.

Giancarlo Cerrelli, the secretary of the League’s Crotone unit, told the Guardian that the flyer was intended to promote “the great social role of women” and that its message has been misinterpreted. “I’m not allowed to say anything more than that,” he added.

Cerrelli was banned from speaking to the press following outrage from female ministers from the League’s government coalition partner, the Five Star Movement.

“This leaflet takes us back years,” said Giulia Grillo, Italy’s health minister; Elisabetta Trenta, the defence minister and Barbara Lezzi, the minister for the south, in a statement.

“As women in this government we express our deepest concern. We hope and trust that the League leaders will distance themselves as soon as possible.”

Matteo Salvini, the leader of the League and deputy prime minister, distanced himself, saying he did not support the content. “I’m working for equal dignity between men and women and between fathers and mothers,” he said.

A League councillor in the Umbria region was expelled from the party in February after telling the singer, Emma Marrone, that she’d “do well to open her legs and get paid” after she called for ports to be opened to migrants.