Italy: Cultural and political debates on femicide

Discussions regarding the cultural and political dimensions of femicide are gaining traction in Italy. Historian Ivan Jablonka, in his work ‘La cultura del femminicidio’, argues that femicide is not merely an isolated criminal act but the culmination of a long-standing symbolic and cultural process rooted in the collective imagination. Jablonka suggests that violence against women is reinforced through cultural representations and historical patterns of sexualization and mutilation.

In the political sphere, Francesca Lambertini, a local official from the Fratelli d’Italia party, has voiced support for the specific legal recognition of femicide. Lambertini rejects attempts to question the crime's classification and opposes any return to patriarchal models where female freedom is supposedly guaranteed by a ‘strong man’. She aligns her stance with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s position, emphasizing that the crime sanctions the specific motivation of refusing to accept a woman’s autonomy.