Europe21 September, 20262 min read
Antonio Tajani Apologizes After Advising Men To Choose Women With Longer Skirts
This article is an automated aggregation of coverage from news outlets. Our editorials offer in-depth analysis curated by the NewsCord team.
Tajani advised choosing a wife with a longer skirt, sparking controversy. He apologized, saying he did not intend to offend women.
7 outlets told this the same way.
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Tajani’s “long skirt”
Antonio Tajani, Italy’s Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister, compared voting in elections to choosing a romantic partner during an event in Formello, Lazio, and he urged men to choose a “less attractive” woman with a “slightly longer skirt.” Antonio Tajani told the Itaca audience in Formello that “choose the second one, the one that may seem fascinating to you and then betrays you.”
Antonio Tajani also extended the comparison to clothing and to men, saying, “Do you prefer the one like that, or the serious girl, who perhaps wears skirts a bit longer than the other.” Antonio Tajani later apologized in New York, saying, “I never meant to offend women.”
Opposition attacks and “shame”
Elly Schlein called Tajani’s remarks a “shame,” accusing him of promoting a backward-looking view of women after his “slightly longer skirt” advice circulated online. Matteo Renzi criticized Tajani for representing a “19th-century view of women,” and he said, according to L’Unione Sarda, “The foreign minister should deal with the Afghan burkas of women, not the miniskirts of Italian girls.”
Chiara Braga warned that Tajani’s statements were especially problematic in a society where violence against women is a serious issue. Valeria Valente described Tajani’s comments as “simply shameful, unworthy of a minister of the Italian Republic,” and she said they concentrated “stereotypes about women” and an image of the woman as “the angel of the hearth.”
Afghan women and stakes
Antonio Tajani’s critics linked the controversy to a question of priorities, with Matteo Renzi arguing that the foreign minister should focus on “the Afghan burkas of women, not the miniskirts of Italian girls.” La Prealpina framed Tajani’s remarks as a paradox, writing that while the Foreign Minister dealt with “the good girls of Italy,” he should have addressed “Afghan women,” where the issue is not “how long the skirt is but they must cover themselves or risk being killed.”
“The foreign minister should deal with the Afghan burkas of women, not the miniskirts of Italian girls.”
La Prealpina also quoted Tajani’s apology from New York, “I never meant to offend women,” and it contrasted that with the idea that “votes count.” La Prealpina concluded by insisting that at the polls “you don’t measure the length of the skirt,” but instead “measure the freedom to choose.”