“A Mini-Skirt Makes a Woman Unreliable”: Italy’s Deputy PM Sparks Backlash

Italy’s deputy prime minister has said that women would make better mothers if they wore longer skirts. Predictably, his remarks sparked a wave of outrage and mockery, The Telegraph reports.

Antonio Tajani, who also serves as Italy’s foreign minister and leads the Forza Italia party, said that while “it is nice to marry a beautiful girl,” such a woman could turn out to be someone who “has had many boyfriends, left them, walked away and is prone to cheating.”

He said that if he were advising his own son, he would tell him to marry a “less flashy” and more reliable woman — someone who “will be a good mother and remain faithful to the love she promises in marriage… someone who perhaps wears skirts a little longer than other women.”

Tajani, who leads one of the three parties in Giorgia Meloni’s conservative governing coalition, was met with fierce criticism and ridicule. His comments also drew a strong reaction from the Catholic Church.

Chiara Appendino, an MP from the centre-left Five Star Movement, posted a photograph of herself sitting on a bench in a miniskirt and sarcastically asked whether that meant she was not a good mother or a reliable wife.

“Tajani, am I an unreliable woman?” she wrote in the caption.

“Am I not a good mother? In 2026, we should not be hearing a member of the government explain that it is better to marry a less flashy woman who wears a longer skirt. A woman’s reliability cannot be measured in centimetres of fabric,” Ms Appendino said.

Italy, she added, should “leave the Middle Ages behind”. Appendino previously served as mayor of Turin.

Former Italian prime minister and prominent left-wing politician Matteo Renzi also criticised Tajani’s comments.

“You cannot say that a girl wearing a slightly shorter skirt is an unserious person. What is this — the 18th century?” he said.

Maria Elena Boschi, an opposition MP from Italia Viva, sarcastically suggested that Tajani take his theory even further.

“After his theories about women’s reliability and bare legs, the only thing left is for Tajani to propose at the next cabinet meeting a decree requiring long skirts in schools, at work and perhaps even in parliament,” she said.

Tajani later apologised for his remarks.

“I apologise if my words offended anyone, but I never intended to offend women. I have never done that in my life — neither personally nor in public life,” the foreign minister said in New York, where he was attending the United Nations General Assembly.

But the controversy did not end there.

Roberto Vannacci, a former special forces commander who went into politics, then entered the debate. During a television interview, he was asked whether he preferred women in long or short skirts.

“Between a woman in a long skirt and a woman in a short skirt, I will always choose a woman without a skirt,” replied Vannacci, the leader of the new far-right party Futuro Nazionale.

He said his comment was merely a joke, but Elisabetta Piccolotti, an MP from the Green and Left Alliance, accused him of making remarks that “take us back to an animalistic state.”

The Catholic Church eventually joined the debate as well.

“Every word and every look directed towards a woman should be filled with respect and admiration,” said Monsignor Giuseppe Baturi, head of the influential Italian Bishops’ Conference.

“For us Christians, the first place where the Word became flesh was the womb of a woman — and for believers, this leaves an indelible mark on the way we relate to women,” he added.