Rome, May 9 (LaPresse) – The visit to the Biennale “serves to reaffirm our institutional presence alongside nations such as Ukraine, without however endorsing questionable organisational choices. I responded to the invitation from the Ukrainian pavilion and from other nations affected by the conflict, but I chose not to take part in Buttafuoco’s opening conference.” This was stated by the president of the Culture Committee of the Chamber of Deputies, Federico Mollicone, a Fratelli d’Italia MP, in an interview with La Stampa. Vice Premier Matteo Salvini’s decision to visit the Russian pavilion is “a choice I respect, but do not share. It risks legitimising a state that uses culture to mask its crimes.” A choice which, however, “falls within the normal dynamics of a heterogeneous coalition. The stability of the government prevails over any misunderstanding.” As for Buttafuoco, a right-wing intellectual chosen by FdI itself, he explains: “The right is not monolithic, but plural. And we are another right. We do not believe in the ‘Al-Bunduqiyyah’, Buttafuoco’s ‘Arab Venice’.” Moreover, “we are in a sense involved in the Russia-Ukraine conflict. We send weapons, money and aid to defend Europe’s borders. It is a foreign policy issue on which Buttafuoco has overstepped.”