Italy: MP baits two gay colleagues with 'fag bag' contents: 'Barilla's right. From now on I only eat his pasta.'

Lorenza Antonucci, in a Slate post yesterday (Why the Barilla Boycott Matters to Italian LGBT People) reminded her readers of the considerable amount of background homophobia in Italy:

During a political discussion in the Italian Parliament on the "Barilla case" yesterday, an MP from the Lega Party decided to provoke two openly gay MPs with a fennel bulb (finocchio is the Italian slang for “faggot”) and to try to physically assault one of them.

Here's what AKSARBENT thinks happened after perusing several accounts: Gianluca Buonanno (above, pointing), of Italy's Northern League, a party allied with Silvio Berlusconi's People of Freedom, brought a bag with one or more fennel bulbs, opened it and insultingly plopped one on his desk while gay MP Alessandro Zan was talking. Then another gay MP, Toni Matarrelli, insisted that the vegetable be removed from the chamber. At which point Buonanno approached Matarrelli, at which point a very large parliamentary "assistant" stepped in, at which point Buonanno ran away, denouncing Alessandro Di Battista, a Civic Choice deputy, on his way out.

Pro-LGBT Italian Chamber of Deputies members Toni Matarrelli and (in center) Allesandro Zan

Here's one account from Il Mattina, followed by a very rough translation via Google's translation bot, which does exhibit its own special flair in labeling a sack of fennel bulbs a "fag bag":

PADOVA. Il «caso Barilla» surriscalda gli animi nell'Aula della Camera. Sul finale, mentre sta parlando Alessandro Zan, deputato padovano di Sel, gay dichiarato, il leghista Gianluca Buonanno estrae dalla borsa un finocchio e lo mette in bella mostra sul suo banco. A quel punto Toni Matarrelli, altro deputato di Sel, va al banco della presidenza per chiedere di rimuovere l'ortaggio. Ma Buonanno gli si avvicina e tra i due si sfiora la rissa.
     Intervengono gli assistenti parlamentari, a evitare ogni contatto. Ma Buonanno, per sottrarsi alla morsa, corre fuori dall'Aula (urtando, denuncia il grillino Alessandro Di Battista, una deputata di Scelta civica). Dal Transatlantico si vede il leghista sfrecciare inseguito da un commesso e poi rientrare in Aula, alla ricerca di Matarrelli. Ma il contatto fisico tra i due viene evitato.
     Buonanno, già noto alle cronache d'Aula per le sue iniziative, è stato più volte protagonista oggi di interventi accesi contro la presidente Boldrini e contro i deputati di Sel. Andando via, ci tiene a far sapere: «Barilla ha ragione. D'ora in poi mangerò solo la sua pasta».

PADUA. The "case Barilla 'hot tempers in the Hall of the House. On the final, while talking Alessandro Zan, deputy Paduan Sel, openly gay, the League's Gianluca Buonanno extracted from a fag bag and puts it on display on his desk. At that point, Toni Matarrelli, another deputy of Sel, going to school to ask the Presidency to remove the vegetable. But Buonanno approaches him and between the two you touch the brawl.
     Speakers parliamentary assistants, to avoid all contact. But Buonanno, to escape the clutches, runs outside the classroom (bumping, denounces the grillino Alessandro Di Battista, a deputy of civic Choice). Since you see the Ocean League whiz chased by a salesperson and then return to the classroom, looking for Matarrelli. But the physical contact between the two is avoided.
     Buonanno, already known to the media the Classroom for its initiatives, has often been the protagonist of today's interventions turned against the President and against Boldrini Members of Sel Going away, he wants to say: 'Barilla's right. From now on I only eat his pasta."