Stylists from major Italian fashion houses and social media influencers used this year’s Milan Fashion Week to mobilize public opinion in Italy against the far-right ahead of the country’s parliamentary elections on Sunday, Agerpres reports.

In a context where public opinion polls put the post-fascist Fratelli d’Italia party led by Giorgia Maloney in first place in terms of voter preference and predict high absenteeism, Valentino artistic director Pierpaolo Piccioli, famous Donatella Versace and online star Chiara Ferragni in social networks called on their fans to go to the elections.

“Go vote, because these elections are very important for our country! On September 25, vote to protect the rights you have received, thinking about progress and looking to the future,” Donatella Versace, whose fashion house organized the presentation in Milan on Friday, wrote on Instagram.

Pierpaolo Piccioli, presenting himself as a “man of the left”, also called on young Italians to go and vote.

“To think that there are people, people who are afraid at this moment, afraid of the consequences of this election, makes me mad with anger,” he wrote.

“I hope that all young people over the age of 18 will go to the polls on September 25 because we must not take a single step back on the rights that we have won,” he added, referring to Georgia Maloney’s reactionary agenda on several social questions .

Georgia Maloney: “Yes to natural families, no to the LGBT lobby!”

“Yes to natural families, no to the LGBT lobby! Yes to sexual identity, no to gender ideology! Yes, for a culture of life, not an abyss of death!” Georgia Maloney said in June.

For her part, Chiara Ferragni called on her millions of fans on Instagram and TikTok to defend “the right of women to have an abortion, the right of LGBT people not to be beaten, insulted, discriminated against, the right of those who suffer when they decide their own. own life, the child’s right to feel that he belongs to this country, even if he comes from foreign parents.”

Chiara Ferragni, who is also a very good business woman, specifically addressed those who “don’t feel represented” and those who are “disappointed”. “It is up to us to protect and expand these rights or to put them in the hands of those who want to limit them. Not voting means only delegating to others what we have to decide ourselves,” she concluded.

• READ ALSO: Elections in Italy: the far-right hopes for a historic victory / What the latest polls say

“Front against the extreme right”

Italian fashion houses also mobilized to allow staff working during the Milan shows to vote in Sunday’s election.

“The house of Gucci completely reorganized the work schedule so that we could get home and then vote,” said Giacomo, an employee of the Rome headquarters of the house of Gucci, who is currently in Milan for Fashion Week with his significant other. colleagues

About 80% of the employees of Italian fashion houses – designers, stylists, production managers, product teams and marketing teams – were mobilized to attend the fashion shows in Milan, as well as to participate in the merchandising stages of the presented collections.

Timetables and customs were changed to allow everyone to get to where they live, as proxy voting is not allowed in Italy.

The stakes are all the higher as the participation rate could fall below 70%, which would be the lowest for Italy.

“Some of us should go to vote in Apulia, Sicily, Sardinia! It is impossible to imagine that in 2022, with all the technological means at our disposal, we would still have to travel to the elections,” said Roberto Strino, a 39-year-old employee of Giorgio Armani.

“I will go to vote because these elections are very important and we must create a common front against the far-right,” he added.

“We have decided to close the Fendi showroom for the whole day on Sunday,” announced Serge Brunschwig, CEO of Fendi, on the sidelines of a parade organized by the fashion house.

“We will cover the travel expenses of our Italian staff so they can go to their polling stations and return to Milan on Monday or Tuesday,” he added.