Palio di Asti controversy over invitation to Emanuele Filiberto

Italian MP Marcello Coppo posted a video defending the Palio di Asti after left‑wing groups criticised the invitation extended by the Rione Santa Caterina neighbourhood to Prince Emanuele Filiberto of Savoy. Coppo said the historic race is “a festival that touches the soul of the city, politics has nothing to do with it,” and urged people to view the event simply as a local celebration.

A letter signed by the National Association of Italian Partisans (ANPI) and dozens of local organisations, including the municipal labour unions and the Five Star Movement, argued that inviting a descendant of the Savoy dynasty—responsible for delivering Italy to fascism in 1922 and for the 1938 racial laws—was incompatible with the republican values of the city, especially on the 80th anniversary of the Republic. The signatories called on the neighbourhood to withdraw the invitation and proposed a public republican‑memory moment to accompany the Palio festivities.