Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s attacks on Italy’s cultural heritage – from libel suits against intellectuals to her government’s censorship of texts critical of Mussolini – have made headlines across Europe. Less attention, however, has been granted to the agricultural minister’s blows on the country’s natural heritage. Francesco Lollobrigida, who has held this position since October 2022, is a lawyer who cut his teeth on politics at the neo-fascist party Italian Social Movement before joining Fratelli d'Italia in 2012.
Italy’s “war” on wild boars
On May 5, Lollobrigida passed a law intended to fight African swine fever, a disease spread from wild boars to other animals. The law earmarked 5 million euros toward that effort in 2024 and 15 million euros in 2025. But what is mostly criticised in the Italian media is that it changes the status of forest guards, who are now no longer under the environment ministry but the agriculture ministry.
