The Indian-born British author Salman Rushdie, known for "Midnight's Children" and "The Satanic Verses," called legal proceedings brought against cultural critics by Italy's far-right Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni "childish."
At the Turin International Book Fair on Thursday, Rushdie said that influential politicians should be able to take criticism. At the risk of Meloni also starting a lawsuit against him, he said, he advised her to "grow up!"
Rushdie was referring to a conviction that Meloni secured against Italian writer Roberto Saviano after he had repeatedly called her a "bastard" on a talk show.
Saviano, known for his groundbreaking work on the Mafia "Gomorrah," was fined €1,000.
Meloni, who heads the far-right Brothers of Italy party, is also taking legal action against other critics, after being elected on an anti-migrant platform.
"Politicians have great power. And it is normal for the population to have strong opinions about them," Rushdie said. "So to trial and prosecute somebody because he uses a rude word is childish. My response would be: grow up."
Rushdie was in Turin to present his latest work, called "Knife," about being attacked in New York state.
He has been blind in one eye since he was stabbed multiple times by a Muslim attacker in the United States in 2022.
Rushdie was not accompanied by security at the time but has been living under police protection since the 1990s, after an Iranian cleric called a fatwa against him for his writings about Islam.
The fatwa, an order for Muslims to kill Rushdie, came in response to alleged blasphemy in "The Satanic Verses."