Rainbow ribbons for the son, controversy over the councilor. Salvini: "Is it really necessary?"

Neither pink nor blue. Rainbow ribbons for the birth of Aronne , son of Margherita Colonnello , the Democratic Party councilor for social affairs in the Municipality of Padua.

Colonnello had announced his intention at the end of May, on stage at Padua Pride, when he still didn't know the sex of his unborn child: "I'll give you a rainbow ribbon," he said, "because all the colors are beautiful. And then you can choose: it will be pink, it will be blue, or green, red, or yellow."

And so, after the birth of her newborn, she hung five rainbow ribbons on her office door. The choice was criticized by Lega leader Matteo Salvini in a post on Instagram: "Congratulations and best wishes to mom, dad, and baby! But was all this really necessary?" Padua city councilor Eleonora Mosco , of the Lega, was more harsh, arguing that the baby was "transformed, as soon as he was born, into an ideological manifesto. Nature is not a catalogue: you are born male or female, period. Defending children means protecting them from the confusion that a certain left-wing party wants to impose, denying common sense and reality."

His mother weighed in on the matter in a post on social media: "Our son is not even two weeks old yet. We never imagined we'd have to spend this precious time drowning in a national controversy about our family. Keyboard warriors have unleashed their anger based on an incorrectly reported statement, filling us with hatred."

Margherita Colonnello , commented on the controversy: "The 'beast' took our speech at the Padua Pride Parade, delivered three months ago, and distorted it, making it caricatured and easily shared to fuel verbal abuse. Our Pride speech, which anyone can listen to again, was conceived and delivered against the gender stereotypes that still influence our society today, generating hatred and discrimination. We felt compelled to publicly wish our son to choose the rainbow as a symbol of love and peace in a world that distorts the beauty and variety of life into just black and white. We didn't ask him to decide whether to be male or female. We promised him, in a society still too fearful, that we will always be by his side, whatever he decides for his life and whoever he decides to be. For us, this means parental love."

"We hope," the councilor concludes, "that those who claim to be 'defenders of the family' will respect our peace of mind during these intense and beautiful days. These are days we would like to spend alone with our son, without having to defend ourselves from attacks from the right. We thank those who are showing us solidarity and support."