All the gaffes of Lucia Borgonzoni: from not reading for 3 years to Emilia bordering Trentino

The appointment of Lucia Borgonzoni as undersecretary for culture in Mario Draghi ’s government has created a bit of a stir in the environment: in fact, the Leghist senator had already held this position (together with Gianluca Vacca of the 5 Star Movement: she was in charge of cinema and entertainment), with results that were not exactly exciting, but that is not all. In fact, Borgonzoni is considered an unparalleled gaffeuse, and now citizens and insiders are wondering if indeed Lucia Borgonzoni was best suited to be the undersecretary for culture, given the collection of slips that the newly appointed undersecretary has amassed in a relatively short time, abetted by her propensity to indulge unabashedly in the press and to post continuously on social media.

The certainly most notorious gaffe saw her starring in 2018, shortly after she was first appointed undersecretary: on the program Un giorno da pecora on Rai Radio 1 she had candidly admitted that she had not read a book in three years: in this case, the last book she read was Kafka’s The Castle. Borgonzoni’s admission had created some bewilderment: how is it possible that the undersecretary for culture reads so little? So much so that Borgonzoni had later corrected her course, claiming that she reads a lot for work, but cannot indulge in reading ... for leisure.

A long series of gaffes then accompanied Lucia Borgonzoni during the 2020 election campaign for the presidency ofEmilia-Romagna, when she was challenging Stefano Bonaccini of the PD, lost with 43.63 percent of the vote against the 51.42 percent of her Dem rival. On January 9, he had given an appointment to his voters in Bologna, but in the social event created to promote the rally, he had posted a photo of Ferrara. He had then made much discussion about his proposal to keep hospitals always open “at night and on weekends in Emilia-Romagna” (even though, as everyone knows, hospitals are always open everywhere). And, still on the subject of proposals to give place to institutions or activities already in existence, Borgonzoni had launched the idea of creating a regional Tourism Department (already in existence since 2011), a regulation to finance historical re-enactments (already approved three years earlier), and an observatory on disability (already in existence since 2018). In short, as it had become something of a habit, satirical posts linked to the hashtag “#luciapromettec cose” had also sprung up on social media: for example, “to prevent traffic accidents we will introduce the use of traffic lights,” or even “we will build the Tav between Bologna and Milan,” or “the traffic circles of the state highways will be circular in shape.” Mockery not so far from reality!

Indeed, reality had even managed to overcome fantasy, because in mid-January, still as a candidate for the regional presidency, Borgonzoni, on her Facebook page, had launched a poll to ask voters in Emilia-Romagna whether they preferred the Bonaccini-Zingaretti pairing or the Borgonzoni-Salvini pair. Complete with an “angry” smiley face to vote for the two Dems, and conversely like for the two leghistas. The then candidate probably thought she was certain of the result, having proposed the poll to her base: however, the poll failed miserably with the Pd pair getting three times as many votes as the League (and even now the post sees almost 50,000 likes for the former and 11,000 for the latter). And if in reading and politics it is not going so well, perhaps even worse is going in geography: still on Un giorno da pecora, in October 2019, Borgonzoni managed to claim that Emilia-Romagna borders Trentino. From geography to economics, in an episode of Piazza Pulita, during which she had a confrontation with Calenda, who reproached her for not knowing what she was talking about, Lucia Borgonzoni confused the European Stability Mechanism with the bank resolution fund (and since then, moreover, she has hardly spoken about the topic).

What about art? One does not really speak of gaffes, but Borgonzoni has certainly distinguished herself for some controversial positions, such as when in 2018 she tried to block the loans of Leonardo’s works to the Louvre for the great five-hundredth anniversary exhibition by shifting to the level of fan nationalism a controversy born in the scientific sphere (“Leonardo,” she had declared, “is Italian and in France he only died there. He is not Leonardò but Leonardo and giving the Louvre all those paintings means putting Italy on the margins of a great cultural event.”). And then again, in the summer of 2020, Borgonzoni had lashed out at a feminist and anti-racist street art project, proposing to replace the works with billboards at no cost to merchants, restaurateurs, and bartenders. In short, it is also by recalling this string of pearls that many are now wondering whether Borgonzoni really was the best choice, especially since she will now be on her own...

All the gaffes of Lucia Borgonzoni: from not reading for 3 years to Emilia bordering Trentino

Warning: the translation into English of the original Italian article was created using automatic tools. We undertake to review all articles, but we do not guarantee the total absence of inaccuracies in the translation due to the program. You can find the original by clicking on the ITA button. If you find any mistake,please contact us.