Salvini calls for chemical castration for the seven rapists of a 13-year-old girl: "There can be no mercy, only a cure"

Italian Vice President Matteo Salvini has made a strong call for chemical castration of the seven young men, three of them minors, who raped a 13-year-old girl in Catania. Salvini, who is also the Minister of Infrastructure and leader of the Northern League, expressed his demand on X (formerly Twitter), urging for a bill he has previously presented to the Senate to be revived. In a social media post, he stated, “In the face of horrors of this type, there can be no mercy, only a cure: chemical castration.”

This is not the first time Salvini has called for this measure, as it is one of the key points of his party program. He previously demanded it after a group rape in Palermo last summer and now urges his colleagues to vote in favor of his proposal.

In September, the Northern League presented a bill to the Senate, allowing for the voluntary or coercive use of total androgen blockade (chemical castration) as a pharmacological treatment. The judge has the authority to decide whether or not to administer the treatment, with automatic activation if the violation is a relapse or committed against minors.

The case of the minor from Catania has deeply shocked Italian public opinion. The incident took place in public bathrooms in the Villa Bellini garden, where the seven young men, two of whom abused the girl while the others watched and restrained her boyfriend. In her desperate plea, the girl begged for her release and not to be harmed. Eventually, she managed to escape from the second perpetrator and flee with her boyfriend.