Placebo frontman Brian Molko is being charged with defamation after appearing to call the Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, a “piece of shit, fascist, racist” in Italian while performing at a festival in Turin in 2023.
In August 2023, Meloni sued Molko over the comments. Prosecutors subsequently opened an investigation into the claims and have charged Molko with “contempt of the institutions”.
On Monday, Italy’s justice ministry allowed prosecutors in Turin to move forward with the legal proceedings. Defaming the Italian government, parliament, courts or army carries a fine of up to €5,000 (£4,146) and a direct summons to trial. Although public defamation in Italy can carry a prison term of up to three years, a spokesperson for justice minister Carlo Nordio has said Molko is unlikely to receive a custodial sentence.
A spokesperson for the band said there would be no comment.
Meloni leads the nationalist Brothers of Italy party and the hard-right coalition that has led the country since 2022 and pursued hardline policies on immigration, abortion and same-sex parenting. She recently joined far-right figures at the inauguration of Donald Trump.
Her party has recently banned surrogacy, putting those who go abroad to access it on a par with terrorists, paedophiles and war criminals – seemingly as part of the party’s homophobic stance – but ignoring the fact that nine out of 10 of the 250 Italian couples who seek surrogacy overseas each year are heterosexual. In September, the granddaughter of Italian wartime dictator Benito Mussolini said she was leaving Brothers of Italy because it was too rightwing.
In May, the philosopher Donatella Di Cesare, who was being sued by Meloni’s brother-in-law for comparing one of his speeches to Hitler’s Mein Kampf, claimed that her government was strategically using defamation suits to silence public intellectuals. Meloni’s first year in office recorded the highest number of lawsuits against public participation, according to the European parliament’s civil liberties committee.
Molko formed Placebo in 1994. The British rock band are known for their androgynous appearance and lyrics discussing sexuality, drug use and mental health. Their single Nancy Boy reached UK No 4 in 1997. Their most recent album, Never Let Me Go, was released in 2022.
