On 1 June 2018,the League and the Five Star Movement (M5S) formed a coalition government led by the independent university professor Giuseppe Conte.[13] The government was sworn in on 5 September 2019.[14] Fontana was appointed Minister of Family and Minister for Disabilities.[15][16] In August 2018,Fontana called for the repeal of the 1993 Mancino Law,which criminalises hate speech,saying the law was being used by globalists to promote "anti-Italian racism".[17] In March 2019,he helped organize the anti-gay,anti-feminist,and anti-abortion World Congress of Families in Verona,to the point of authorizing the use of the logo of Conte's administrative office in order to promote the event without the prime minister's permission.[18]
While meeting the President of Verkhovna RadaStefančuk,he reiterated that the Russian aggression represents a violations an international laws and that the winning of Ukraine means stability for all European countries.[29]
Political views
Fontana is widely considered an ultraconservative.[30][31][32] He calls himself a "crusader" who fights against abortion,euthanasia,same-sex civil unions,and stepchild adoption,which he considers as a "weakening of the family". He is also against "pro-LGBT" sexual education,stating that Vladimir Putin's Russia "is the reference for those who believe in a nationalist model of society".[33] Fontana was considered an admirer of Putin until the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022.[34] Before the Russian attack,Fontana declared the foreign policy of Lega as totally in favour of NATO,including the sanctions on the Russian Federation. He reiterated that his positions are aligned with NATO and the EU,following the latest voting decisions of the Lega - ID group in the European Parliament.[35] On 2 June 2018,the day after becoming minister,he added that "gay families do not exist",labelling them as "filth".[36][37][38] He opposes illegal immigration to Italy,claiming it to be a serious threat that "aims to erase the Italian people along with their communities and traditions",along with "gay marriages and the so-called gender theory in schools".[39]
During his life,Fontana has been in touch with far right football supporters' groups in his hometown Verona.[40][41] In 2016,he welcomed and greeted Golden Dawn,a Greek neo-Nazi party later judged by the Supreme Civil and Criminal Court of Greece as a criminal organization,and he described its members as "fighters",stating that "their contribution will be decisive".[42]
He was a member of the European Parliament when his party entered the European group ENF with Marine Le Pen's Front National. Fontana has been one of the main protagonist of what he defined the "historical alliance" between Matteo Salvini and Marine Le Pen.[43]
Works
In 2018,Fontana wrote with Ettore Gotti Tedeschi the book The Empty Cradle of Civilization. At the Origin of the Crisis,about the risks related to demographic decline in Italy.[44]
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