Meloni reacts angrily to Kirk meme, saying: “We won’t be intimidated”.
Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni on Thursday attacked a meme on social media about Charlie Kirk, the right-wing US activist who was shot dead at Utah University.
The image, posted by Italian left-wing student movements Osa and Cambiare Rotta, features a black and white upside-down image of Kirk, his face covered with a red “-1”.
The post is accompanied by the caption: “A buon intenditor poche parole” (an Italian proverb which means that few words are needed to understand) along with: “Oggi è un giorno meno buio” (Today is a less dark day).
In Italy, upside-down images are interpreted as a direct reference to the corpse of wartime fascist dictator Benito Mussolini hung in Milan’s Piazzale Loreto after Italian partisans executed him in 1945.
Questi sono i sedicenti antifascisti. Questo è il clima, ormai, anche in Italia. Nessuno dirà nulla, e allora lo faccio io.
Non ci facciamo intimidire. pic.twitter.com/PCgR6WaC70
— Giorgia Meloni (@GiorgiaMeloni) September 11, 2025
Meloni, leader of the right-wing Fratelli d’Italia party, shared a screenshot of the meme across her official social media profiles, writing (in Italian): “These are the so-called anti-fascists. This is the climate, by now, also in Italy. No one will say anything, so I’ll do it. We won’t be intimidated.”
Earlier on Thursday Meloni expressed her shock over the killing of Kirk, 31, an influential conservative activist and a close ally of US President Donald Trump.
In a post on social media, Meloni described Kirk’s killing as “an atrocious murder, a deep wound for democracy and those who believe in freedom”.
Italy’s deputy premier Matteo Salvini, leader of the right-wing Lega party, paid tribute to Kirk by delivering flowers to the US embassy in Rome.
Photo credit: Marco Iacobucci Epp / Shutterstock.com.
