This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

The nomination by Italy’s governing far-right League and populist Five Star Movement (M5S) of an anti-Europe, anti-gay, pro-Russian journalist as president of the state broadcaster Rai has been rejected.

The Italian parliament’s supervisory committee on Wednesday turned down the appointment of Marcello Foa, who has often shared stories proved to be fake, after the coalition put him up for the job on Sunday.

His appointment, which was approved by Rai’s board on Tuesday, failed to receive the two-thirds of votes required from the supervisory committee after Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia, the centre-left Democratic party and the smaller leftwing party, Free and Equal, all abstained.

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However, with Rai’s board consisting of a majority of politicians from the governing M5S and far-right League, there is a chance that Foa could remain on the board, if not as president then as an adviser.

“We wanted Rai to change but the opposition said no,” said Gianluigi Paragone, a politician with M5S. “I hope that Foa does not resign.”

The M5S leader, Luigi Di Maio, said on Sunday that Foa’s appointment would help to purge the “parasites” from within the traditional Italian parties who had led Rai for decades.

However, the journalists’ unions, FNSI and Usigrai, described the move as “a fatal blow to the autonomy and independence of the public service”.

The other potential candidate for the presidency is Giampaolo Rossi, a spin doctor for the smaller far-right party, Brothers of Italy, and supporter of Viktor Orbán, Hungary’s anti-immigration prime minister.

“Rossi has already said that he would love to work with Foa, so if they decide on Rossi and in combination with Foa [on the board] then that is really worrying,” said a source within the media industry.

Fake stories shared by Foa, who worked for Il Giornale, the newspaper owned by Berlusconi’s Mediaset, included one during the US presidential election campaign about Hillary Clinton participating in satanic dinners and another about a supposed plan to overthrow the victor, Donald Trump.

He has also said that being gay is abnormal and that giving babies vaccines could provoke a “shock” in the child.

He once shared a faked image of a pregnant transgender man on his blog. “You’re confused?” he asked his readers. “So am I, but that is how the world is going.”

Foa has repeatedly attacked the Italian president, Sergio Mattarella, and following the Brexit vote in 2016 said that leaving the euro was a “hypothesis that should be considered very seriously”.

He has also described the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, as a leader “who does not look for trouble”.