Andrea Giambruno, a journalist and partner of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, was criticized on Tuesday after he advised young girls on television not to drink to avoid rape, AFP reported.

Giambruno was speaking live during the news show he hosts on Monday on Rete4, which is owned by the Berlusconi family’s Mediaset group and is one of the country’s biggest private channels.

He and his guests discussed the cases of sexual violence that have rocked Italy in recent weeks, including the gang-rape of a 19-year-old woman in Palermo in early July.

In this case, the victim described how the attackers forced her to drink. Surveillance video shows her swaying as seven young men lead her.

“If you go to a dance, you have every right to get drunk, there should be no misunderstandings or reservations,” commented Andrea Giambruno.

“But if you avoid getting drunk and passing out, you also avoid certain problems and the risk of falling into the lion’s den,” he added.

Leaders of the opposition to the right-wing government of Georgia Maloney immediately attacked him.

“I express my solidarity with the rape victim in Palermo, who cannot, in addition to what she has been through, also suffer the infamous abuse of those who make victims feel guilty,” said Ellie Schlein, the Democratic National Secretary, the general secretary of the Democratic Party. left party

Shlein condemned the “surreal polemic” and “instrumentalization” of his statements.

He recalled that he and his guests had repeatedly condemned the perpetrators of the “despicable” attacks, calling them “animals”.

Andrea Giambruno was also attacked by a well-known colleague, Enrico Mentana, head of the news program of the rival private channel La7.

“If you go shopping with your wallet and it gets stolen, you deserve it. If you’re a woman and you go out at night in a miniskirt and no bra, if you go out after midnight or have too much to drink, don’t be surprised if you get mugged,” he joked on Instagram.