No, Vittorio Feltri, the streets would be much more beautiful and cleaner if crossed by (living) cyclists

Vittorio Feltri finds himself in the eye of the storm after an unfortunate (to put it mildly) joke about cyclistsproposed on September 25th during the event “Greater Milan, a smart city dimension” at the Milanese philological circle. “I only like them when they get run over,” he declared, sparking a wave of indignation and protests. And it is no coincidence, considering that in the Peninsula, 197 citizens riding their bikes were fatally run over in 2023 alone.

The words of the newspaper’s editorial director and Lombard regional councilor of the Brothers of Italy sparked immediate and firm reactions. Road safety associations, politicians, cyclists and ordinary citizens they expressed their outrageaccusing the journalist of inciting violence and fomenting a climate of hatred.

For the mayor Giuseppe Sala, Feltri’s words “I’m an insult to a city like Milan, which should not be toleratedand I want to say this clearly, because behind it there are lives, people, hopes, ideals, dreams of the future. If they allow someone to continue saying and writing certain things, it is because for someone that gentleman is a reference. It’s clear that it’s not something we should smile about.”

Legambiente, Fiab (Italian Environment and Bicycle Federation), Aifvs (Italian Association of Family Road Victims) and Lorenzo Guarnieri Onlus have instead announced the promotion of a judicial initiative against the journalist: “The serious utterances of Felt on citizens on bicycles. As far as we’re concerned this is real incitement to commit crime even more serious in a country like Italy which in the current year has counted over two hundred victims of road violence among those who use bicycles. For our part, we do not intend to let it go but we demand justice for those who can no longer ask for it and for all those who claim the right to cycle safely on the streets of our cities”.

Emails and requests for resignation

The association “Sai che occhi” launched a mail bombing campaign to ask for Feltri’s resignation from his role as regional councilor. Within hours, thousands of protest emails were sent. The opposition in the Regional Council also asked for Feltri’s resignation, accusing him of having uttered words that were unacceptable for a representative of the institutions.

Feltri’s reaction

For his part, Feltri does not seem troubled by the controversy. At the end of his column on Radio Liberta, he reiterated that he did not want to apologize to anyone, maintaining that he had not offended anyone. “In Milan, traffic is strangled by cycle paths which make the lives of citizens more difficult, but it is forbidden to say so. I’m angry with cycle paths, certainly not with cyclists. Then I made a joke which was instead taken seriously: now the sense of humor has become the heritage of a small circle of citizens, the others don’t understand anything.”

A letter (and a complaint) from a cyclist

Federico Balconi, lawyer and president of the Zerosbatti association, which offers legal assistance to victims of bicycle accidents, wrote an open letter to Feltri, announcing his intention to sue him. In the letter, Balconi invites Feltri to “ride with us” to understand the risks that cyclists run every day on the roads, and to learn about the European realities that promote sustainable mobility. The lawyer also underlines that collisions between cars and bicycles are almost always the fault of motorists, and that Feltri’s words are an insult to all those who have been victims of road accidents.

In Adnkonos, Valentina Borgognithe president ofGabriele Borgogni Associationhe said: “These are words that are boulders, and that we struggle to report. And before which one cannot remain indifferent. Our Association cannot tolerate that a journalist, a politician, a public man, allows himself to utter words that are first of all against life, an inviolable and constitutionally recognized good. For this reason, a specific complaint will be filed by the Association’s legal office.”

“I really struggle to understand similar words from another human being, also a father of four children – continued Borgogni – If I think of the pain of my parents and that of many other parents I have met in recent years, from whom he was taken away a son so violently, what the journalist Feltri reported doesn’t seem true to me. A person’s investment it contains a pain for which there are no wordsand Feltri deserves neither his role as a journalist nor as a politician. We hope he never gets that call or sees the police come to his house to tell him that his son is dead. It is a pain that cannot be wished even on those who said such idiocies.”