Lun, 26 Jun 2023
The president of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) in Geneva, Francesco Rocca, will step down from his role by the end of the year, according to an internal note recently leaked by Swiss media Keystone-SDA.
Rocca is currently serving his second term as IFRC president; he was re-elected to the position in 2022. A spokesperson confirmed that Rocca will remain in his position until the Red Cross holds a general meeting this December to elect his successor.
While the IFRC has largely kept quiet about the revelation, the resignation appears to come after controversy surrounding Rocca’s conservative political beliefs in his other role as president of Italy’s Lazio province. Lazio is a chief region of Italy containing its capital city of Rome.
Rocca was elected to his Lazio position in 2022 as part of Italy’s far-right Fratelli d’Italia party, which is headed by the country’s prime minister, Giorgia Meloni. The party advocates for “traditional” family values. While all surrogacy has been banned in Italy since 2004, Meloni has recently proposed legislation that would also ban Italians from seeking pregnancy surrogates abroad, among other options often used by same-sex couples.
When the organizers of Rome’s Pride March called for greater access for same-sex couples to adopt children abroad, use fertility treatments and surrogacy, Francesco Rocca withdrew his support for the event. Rocca said in a press release that the Lazio region should not be used to endorse illegal actions such as “the practice of surrogacy.”
Meanwhile the left-wing mayor of Rome, Roberto Gualtieri, criticized the announcement.
Rocca maintains that his resignation is not a direct result of the Pride controversy and expressed his “deep sadness” internally to the IFRC’s 192 members and secretariat. Rocca said his resignation is in line with his goals to keep the IFRC and the Lazio presidency separate, as decisions about one could affect the other.
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