Peppa Pig, the beloved cartoon pig popular with children, has found a powerful enemy in the right-wing Brothers of Italy (FdI) party.
The controversy revolves around a recently aired episode of the British children’s show that introduces a polar bear named Penny with same-sex parents.
“The decision of the authors of the cartoon to include a character with two mothers is unacceptable” said FdI’s culture spokesperson Federico Mollicone. “Political correctness strikes once again, and it’s our children who pay for it.”
Mollicone, who also sits on the parliament’s broadcasting commission, called on Italy’s national broadcaster to not air the episode.
The call was picked up by other members of the party, which is the front-runner in the country’s upcoming elections.
Isabella Rauti, senator and FdI spokesperson for equal rights, said she hoped that the national broadcaster didn’t “act as a megaphone for controversial ideologies.” And FdI co-founder Fabio Rampelli, vice president of Italy’s lower house, said that the problem wasn’t Peppa Pig but the “indoctrination of children, online and through cartoons.”
The animated pig, once described by former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson as looking “like a hairdryer,” isn’t without its defenders in Italy.
Nicola Fratoianni of the Italian Left party said that LGBT families “exist and are part of our everyday life. To hide that fact means not living in this world.”
“A new enemy besieges the nation: @peppapig,” joked Democratic Party parliamentarian Alessandro Zan.