A radical political campaign in Italy’s Tuscany region against Israel’s honorary consul Marco Carrai has sparked outrage.

The controversy erupted after posters appeared across the town of Sesto Fiorentino and on social media on International Holocaust Remembrance Day. The posters featured Carrai, Israel’s honorary consul in Tuscany, alongside inflammatory captions such as “Wanted,” “War Criminal,” and “Zionist Agent.” The far-left Italian Communist Party, which has targeted Carrai for several months, is behind the campaign.

Former Prime Minister Matteo Renzi strongly defended the consul, condemning the campaign. “If anyone is far from being a ‘war criminal,’ it’s him,” he wrote, adding that labeling the consul as a target endangers not only him but also his family.

Renzi denounced both the timing and setting of the campaign: “On the very day the world commemorates the liberation of Auschwitz, a town chooses to attack a quiet, moderate man whose only ‘crime’ is serving as Israel’s consul.”

However, local officials in Sesto Fiorentino pushed back against Renzi’s comments. Acting Mayor Claudia Pecchioli said she disapproved of the campaign but argued that it was “unfair to link the incident to the town’s Holocaust memorial ceremonies.”

She said that portraying Sesto Fiorentino as marking Holocaust Remembrance Day through personal attacks was “offensive and inaccurate,” claiming that “it is important to distinguish between historical remembrance and political dispute.”

Public figures across Italy condemned the campaign, including former MP Emanuele Fiano, leaders of centrist and right-wing parties, and local mayors, who warned against dangerous political and anti-Israel incitement.

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)