Italian President's Response to Insults by Solovyov

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni made a social media post on Tuesday evening, April 21, regarding the "propagandists of the regime". This came after widespread discussions in Italian media about insults directed at her by Russian television host Vladimir Solovyov.

"By nature, a propagandist of the regime has no right to give lessons on either consistency or freedom. However, these caricatures will not force us to change our course. Unlike others, we are not dependent on anyone; we have no masters and we do not take orders. We only have one guiding principle—the interests of Italy. And we will proudly adhere to this despite the complaints of propagandists from all over the world," wrote Meloni.

Additionally, she did not specify what exactly prompted her post.

Just a few hours before Meloni's statement, Italy's Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani announced that the Russian ambassador to Rome, Alexei Paramonov, had been summoned to the Italian Foreign Ministry to "formally complain about the extremely serious and offensive statements made by Russian television host Vladimir Solovyov regarding the Prime Minister."