A storm has erupted over Carlotta Vagnoli, Valeria Fonte, and Benedetta Sabene, the three activist-writers investigated for stalking and defamation by the Monza prosecutor's office.

Vagnoli and Fonte allegedly launched a smear campaign against Serena Mazzini, a social media strategist they accused of being part of a Telegram group dedicated to dossiers and body shaming. Together with Sabene (although the latter played a marginal role), they then targeted a young man guilty of first cheating on and then leaving their friend. "We're going to make him end up like the shit he is," they wrote to each other, hoping "he'll kill himself with a knife" and promising, "I swear he'll have a social and political death you can't imagine." The young man then attempted suicide, which triggered the investigation and the seizure of their phones.

The focus was thus on a torrent of conversations identified in a chat titled “Fascistella” which included Vagnoli, Fonte and three other people not involved in the investigation : Palestinian activist Karem Rohana, influencer Giuseppe Flavio Pagano and Flavia Carlini, also an influencer and vice-president of the Inter-Parliamentary Group for Fundamental Human Rights.

Over 2,000 pages dating from March 2024 to January 2025 were filed, with dozens of insults directed at public figures, politicians, journalists, lawyers, and businesswomen. Some of the chats were published by Selvaggia Lucarelli in Il Fatto Quotidiano: among those attacked was Michela Murgia, who, according to Vagnoli, "was largely a piece of shit." "I would avoid assuming she fought for public healthcare, given that she evaded taxes for years by claiming it. Then, when she got sick, she sanctified the NHS. When she's dead, the debts pile up like crazy ." And again: "Husband and children, they're all in the shit, eh?" And on Chiara Valerio, a writer and great friend of Murgia's: "I think she's trying to do what she did without her cunning."

The conversations also include Sergio Mattarella ("Old shit"), Liliana Segre ("Old Nazi"), Paolo Mieli, Roberto Saviano, Carlo Calenda, Fabio Fazio, Selvaggia Lucarelli herself, and even Cecilia Sala, who "turned her career around" while imprisoned in Tehran. "We've had human rights explained to us by those who rejoice when Iran kidnaps a journalist," Cecilia Sala commented. "And they wish death upon the President of the Italian Republic for mentioning the journalist in his New Year's speech. We've had harassment explained to us by those under investigation for stalking. Body-shaming by those who do nothing else. Feminism by those who describe working women as 'fuck-offs'. And racism by those who 'hate all Jews' ."

The response is immediate: "A collective crime is taking place in which newspapers, strangers, and false saints are reaping the benefits of phrases and thoughts that everyone involved would repeat in front of a microphone, creating a scoop that doesn't exist ," replies writer and activist Valeria Fonte. "I really don't want to know what connections there are to have accessed my chats," which " were supposed to remain classified and which I found in the newspapers ," Fonte writes. "Imagine if these connections were used to expose fascist governments, mafia members, terrorists," she continues, adding that "one day we'll talk about how this is non-consensual sharing of intimate material. Looking into someone's cell phone without consent is like looking into their underwear. Until then, you can compete to see who is the most saintly. My skeletons in the closet are my contempt for half the political and journalistic classes. And yours?" "This isn't a story about how much of an asshole I am (and we are)," she adds. It's, more simply, a story of misogyny. Aimed primarily at women (and their friends). A story of isolation. Of pillorying . What was it meant to prove? That in private I can even use swear words or curses toward those I don't like? "Oh, how convenient it is for you to think of 'squabbles among activists'. Oh, very convenient. Until it is realized, after this collective hallucination, that it was just misogyny on a national scale disguised as indignation ."

(Unioneonline/D)

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