The use of the middle finger as an insult is believed to date back to the 4th century BC, when the philosopher Diogenes in Athens told a group of spectators what he thought of the orator Demosthenes by making the gesture. The ancient Romans, on the other hand, called the middle finger Digitus Imbuticus (“Attack, indecent finger”).
One of the oldest political middle fingers with photographic evidence is that of US Vice President Nelson Rockefeller, who mocked students at Binghamton University in New York in 1976. It later became known as the “Rockefeller Salute”.
Rockefeller’s influence is still clearly felt.
“Calm down buddy”
In the European Parliament this week, a heated debate over a migrant shipwreck off the coast of Italy turned into a bitter fight, during which Czech MEP Tomas Zdechovsky accused German Socialist Birgit Sippel of giving his colleagues the middle finger. “Do you think you’ll give it up?” You must appear before an ethics committee. “Shut the hell up, dude,” Zdechovsky yelled.
Incidentally, “Calm the fuck down, comrade” sounds like a t-shirt worn by an annoyingly centrist MEP.
The building has previously seen humiliating gestures, not least when a Bulgarian MEP gave a Nazi salute in the room.
In April 2016 – when the idea of Britain voting to leave the EU was Nigel Farage’s wet dream – arch-federalist Guy Verhofstadt and British Conservative Syed Kamal clashed over the EU’s response to terrorism. The latter, we might respectfully call a bad hand gesture, but we might rudely describe him as “he’s a fool” (actually a narcissist).
Kamal later admitted to the gesture, tweeting: “North London boys are like that…actually I personally like the hand” – although this suggests many people make the gesture towards Kamal as he walks around Haringey in the county. In North London.
“A gesture without malice”
Last year, in Downing Street outside the Prime Minister’s Office, Conservative MP Andrea Jenkins gave what she described as a “barking mob” the middle finger.
In March, French Justice Minister Eric Dupont-Moretti gave the middle finger to Olivier Marlix, head of the Republican Party, who recalled the minute in the National Assembly. DuPont-Moretti faces anti-usury charges. “I regret this action,” the minister later said.
The Polish Parliament also knows such greetings. In February 2020, PiS MP Jonah Lichoka gave the opposition the middle finger during a vote on a nearly two-billion subsidy for TVP.
Jonah Lichocka in the Sejm. February 2020
Lichocka said he “swiped his finger under his eye” but apologized “to those who felt offended by this gesture, a gesture with no ill intent.”
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