(ANSA) - ROME, MAY 29 - Top Italian novelist Sandro Veronesi said Wednesday that he will not be part of the Italian delegation at October's Frankfurt Book Fair, where Italy is this year's guest of honour, after left-leaning author and government critic Roberto Saviano was excluded.
    The government's pointman for the event, conservative journalist Mauro Mazza, said Tuesday that it was not a question of discrimination that Saviano did not feature on the list of 100 Italian authors attending the Buchmesse, but a desire to "give space to authors who have not had it in the past".
    "The stupid, ridiculous reasons with which Commissioner Mazza justified Roberto Saviano's exclusion do not allow me to accept the invitation I received," said Veronesi, a two-time winner of Italy's top literary award, the Strega Prize.
    "This interference by the premier and her most trusted aides on decisions that should not be based on political logic continues, accompanied by 'Putinian hypocrisy'.
    "If it is necessary for work reasons, I will go to Frankfurt as a private individual".
    Gomorrah author Saviano had a show on the mafia pulled by state broadcaster Rai after Premier Giorgia Meloni's rightwing government took office in autumn 2022.
    Saviano has had to go into police protection after Camorra death threats after his 2006 bestseller Gomorra, which later spawned a Cannes award winning film and a hit TV series.
    He was successfully sued by Meloni for calling her a "bastard" over migrant children's deaths amid her fierce anti-migrant rhetoric while in opposition in 2020.
    Saviano reacted to his exclusion Wednesday by writing on Instagram: "The most ignorant government in the history of Italy. Proud not to be on the Mazza list".
    The Italian Association of Publishers (AIE) said that it had itself drawn up the list, not Mazza, and that it would "never accept outside interference of any kind".
    It said Saviano's name had not been among those proposed to it.
    Great Anglo-Indian novelist Salman Rushdie said at the recent Turin Book Fair that Meloni should be "less childish" over her slander case against Saviano, a personal friend of his, advising the premier to "grow up".
    Rushdie, one of the stars of the fair with his harrowing near-fatal real-life New York attack story Knife, said "I heard about the dispute between Ms Meloni and Roberto Saviano.
    "At my personal risk I have to say that politicians should grow a thicker skin because a politician today, as well as having great power, also has great authority.
    "So it is normal that some of the people should speak about them directly, even badly, also using a bad word like the one Roberto used.
    "I would give this lady a piece of advice, to be less childish and to grow up".
    Saviano was fined a "symbolic" 1,000 euros in October for calling Meloni and her ally, then hardline anti-migrant interior minister Matteo Salvini, "bastards" on Italian TV after a little girl died in a failed sea rescue in the Mediterranean, and the premier is still pursuing the case.
    The writer also faces a separate trial for having called Salvini the "minister of the underworld" on another occasion.
    Press freedom groups have criticized the Saviano trial and the fact that defamation is a criminal offence in Italy.
    When he called the two politicians "bastards", Saviano referred to their previous statements criticizing NGO rescue ships as "sea taxis" and "cruise ships".
    When he was fined, Saviano said "amid the absurdity of being taken to trial by the premier for having criticized her, there is no greater honour for a writer than to see their words scare such a mendacious power.
    "When it is asked, one day, how it was possible to let all these people die at sea, my name will not be among the accomplices".
    The judge recognised extenuating circumstances including "acting for reasons of particular moral value" and ruled that the penalty would be suspended and Saviano's record left clean.
    Saviano appealed to get a full acquittal, spurring Meloni's countersuit. (ANSA).