Italy's foreign minister Luigi Di Maio on Thursday voiced support for a fired volleyball player being sued by her former club for allegedly breaking her contract after becoming pregnant.
Volley Maniago Pordenone claimed team captain Lara Lugli, 41, failed to tell them she planned to have a baby when she signed a contract for the 2018-19 volleyball season.
“To think that a woman today is forced to choose between a child and her career is no longer tolerable," Di Maio wrote on Facebook.
Lugli, who was team captain, was fired in March 2019 after telling her employer about her pregnancy. She miscarried a month later.
Volley Maniago Pordenone took legal action against Lugli after she requested her €2,500 salary owed for the month she played for the team before finding out she was pregnant.
The case has sparked outrage among politicians and sports chiefs in Italy.
Italian senate speaker, Maria Elisabetta Alberti Casellati called Volley Maniago Pordenone's action “violence against women" while Italian National Olympic Committee chief Giovanni Malago expressed "solidarity" with Lugli.
