• The Minister of Education and the copied thesis. Salvini: "Be ashamed and go home"

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12 January 2020 There is controversy over the new minister of education, Lucia Azzolina, who according to an article in the Republic copied parts of her thesis for the specialization degree obtained in 2009 at the University of Pisa. A unanimous chorus rises from the League to ask for his resignation, with Salvini attacking: "Doing worse than Minister Fioramonti seemed impossible. And instead Azzolina amazes us: be ashamed and go home". The direct interested, in Auschwitz to accompany the students during the Journey of Memory, at first avoids replying, but in the evening she replies: "It is not a thesis and there has been no plagiarism. Salvini? Has never studied in his life ".

The Repubblica article
Everything stems from the article in which it is claimed that Azzolina drew information for his thesis from numerous manuals without mentioning them, not even in the bibliography. In particular, at least four extracts are accounted for, the coincidence of which is underlined with the originals. The disputed thesis, 41 pages entitled "A case of mild delay associated with depressive disorders", was carried out at the end of the studies at the Specialization School for secondary education in Tuscany.

The League attacks
The raising of shields against the new minister starts from the Northern League senator, Alberto Bagnai, who writes on Twitter: "Now let's do like Germany, where Guttenberg, in 2011, resigned". And, turning to the Cinquestelle, he continues: "Have you vilified your country by depicting it as a hotbed of corruption? Now follow your models". To echo him is the deputy, always of the League, Giorgia Latini, vice-president of the Culture Commission in the Chamber: "We will ask Minister Azzolina to come immediately to the Chamber to report and to resign immediately resignation, as his counterparts have done in others in the past Countries, because Italians and the world of school deserve respect and truth ". Then Salvini intervenes: "A minister like this has no right to give (and do) lessons".

The minister's reply
The minister's reply, from Krakow, arrives in the evening: "Do not be fooled, it is neither a thesis nor a plagiarism. I have heard a lot of nonsense in these hours, on the other hand I am not surprised that Salvini does not know distinguish a degree thesis from an end-of-traineeship report Ssis (School of specialization in secondary education): he never studied in his life and it would be strange if he distinguished them ". A regret remains: "The only thing I am sorry to talk about here from the memory trip to Auschwitz," says Azzolina. "On the other hand - he adds, with a final stab - last year, the Northern League minister Bussetti did not show up, and all the more important it was important that I was here today".

The previous
The Azzolina case recalls that of Marianna Madia. In 2017, when she was minister for public administration, she was accused of copying the doctoral thesis. This is why the then M5s MP Danilo Toninelli asked for his resignation. Subsequently, a commission of essays, commissioned by the IMT Alti Studi school of Lucca, verified and validated the degree of originality of the thesis, definitively closing the case.