Bologna, July 23, 2014 – Flavio Romani, president of Arcigay, was "surprised" to learn of the election of the Honorable Patrizia Toia as head of the Democratic Party delegation in the European Parliament. "Without taking anything away from the experience and expertise of the Honorable Toia," Romani argues, "it's striking that she has been appointed to a representative role by a member of her delegation who, during the vote on the Estrela Report on women's right to abortion, dramatically distanced herself from the group, calling herself a minority. This is a recurring problem within the Democratic Party, given that in that same vote, then-delegation leader David Sassoli did exactly the same thing. We certainly won't be the ones to call for a silencer for minorities," Romani continues, "but it's hard to understand how those positions, which explicitly fall outside the PSE's battleground paradigm and which equally clearly correspond to and accommodate the Vatican's invasion of the political arena, can become representative of the largest delegation within the PSE group. The question, then, is twofold: to what extent is the Honorable Toia truly representative of the Democratic Party group currently sitting in Parliament? And consequently, should the positions Toia expresses be considered... "Are these views now "majoritarian" within the Democratic delegation, to the point of being able to influence the political synthesis on issues such as abortion or same-sex unions? While we wait for someone from the group of European MEPs to clarify these concerns, we can only hope that the Italian delegation will actually clarify its political identity, demonstrating as soon as possible a serious, secular, and proactive commitment to the important battles of civilization that Europe, and consequently Italy, must urgently face.".
