Politics used to be a battle over competing ideas, but now it’s become a very real fight “between identities”: that’s according to Valentina Grippo, an Italian Member of Parliament and delegate to the UN-affiliated Inter-Parliamentary Union, or IPU, which met at UN Headquarters this week in New York.  

A majority of MPs worldwide are facing threats and abuse from voters, according to a new IPU report which found that 71 per cent of surveyed lawmakers experienced violence from the public – whether offline, online or both. 

Speaking to Edouard de Bray of UN News Ms. Grippo stressed that rising polarisation and online disinformation are fuelling violence against politicians and undermining democratic debate worldwide.