A student at school had a mother who expatriated to Italy from Chicago to become a marble sculptress. She visited once and told me that Italian men are not very open minded about homosexuality. It's an anecdotal data point but she was a very beautiful, talented, and intelligent woman, and I bet there was some truth in what she said.
Their Prime Minister is, of course, right wing, or very right wing. I don't know much about her.
I know from the few years I spent researching the legal processes related to the murder of Meredith Kercher by Amanda Knox and others that civil society in Italy functions very well but that the country and especially certain parts of it are very corrupt. This corruption notoriously affects the political and judicial systems.
So I'd say this story from what little I know about it doesn't come as a surprise.