Long live the holy Christmas … I hope that in Europe, no one will be offended,” he tweeted.Įven a former European commissioner joined in on the attacks. He called the Commission’s guidelines a “folly,” and later mocked its content. Matteo Salvini, leader of Italy’s right-wing League, echoed Meloni’s criticism. Our history and our identity can’t be canceled, they must be respected.” “In the name of a sinister ideology, it wants to suppress the culture of a people.

“The European Commission, through an internal document, considers the Christmas celebrations as insufficiently inclusive,” Giorgia Meloni, leader of the far-right Brothers of Italy party, wrote on her Facebook page. Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s secretary of state and one of the highest officials inside the Holy See, told Vatican News: “Of course, we know that Europe owes its existence and its identity to numerous contributions, but we certainly can’t forget that one of its main contributions, if not the main one, has been Christianity itself.” The guidelines also recommended avoiding the use of “gendered words” such as “man-made fabrics,” which should be replaced with more generic terms such as “synthetic fabrics.” It also says not to use the phrase “Christian names” and to use “first name” or “forename” instead as well as not using names “that are typically from one religion.” It gives the example of using “Malika and Julio” instead of “Maria and John” to describe an “international couple.” It advises staff to avoid sentences such as “Christmas time can be stressful” and instead use “Holiday times can be stressful.” “Not everyone celebrates the Christian holidays, and not all Christians celebrate them on the same dates,” says the document. The most controversial part of the advice was to “avoid assuming that everyone is Christian.” It asked officials to “never address an audience as ‘ladies and gentlemen’ but use expressions such as ‘Dear colleagues.'” It also called on Commission staffers to refrain from using the terms “Miss or Mrs, unless it is the explicit preference of the person addressed,” and instead to use “Ms universally.” The document is part of a plan championed by Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to implement a “Union of Equality” and make sure that “everyone is valued and recognized in all our material regardless of their gender, racial or ethnic origin, religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation.”

“We are looking into these concerns with the view of addressing them in an updated version of the guidelines.”

“Concern was raised with regards to some examples provided in the Guidelines on Inclusive Communication, which as is customary with such guidelines, is work in progress,” the Maltese commissioner tweeted. As a result, Dalli was forced to backtrack.

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