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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Laura Snapes

Placebo frontman Brian Molko charged with calling Meloni ‘fascist’ and ‘racist’

Brian Molko performing in Italy in 2018.
Brian Molko performing in Italy in 2018. Photograph: Sergione Infuso/Corbis/Getty Images

Placebo frontman Brian Molko is being charged with defamation after appearing to call the Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, a “piece of shit, fascist, racist” in Italian while performing at a festival in Turin in 2023.

In August 2023, Meloni sued Molko over the comments. Prosecutors subsequently opened an investigation into the claims and have charged Molko with “contempt of the institutions”.

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