ROME (Reuters) – Italy’s opposition party on Monday called for the dissolution of a far-right party after a video emerged showing hundreds of men giving a fascist salute during a rally in Rome. .
The rally was held Sunday in front of MSI Group’s former headquarters. The MSI Group is a neo-fascist party, later transformed into the Italian Brotherhood of the Conservative Party, co-founded by Giorgia Meloni, who is now Prime Minister.
The event marked the 46th anniversary of the murder of three neo-fascists on Via Acca Larentia in southeastern Rome.
Two of them were shot dead by people believed to be far-left extremists, and the third was killed by police in a riot that broke out immediately after the shooting. No one was ever convicted in connection with the death.
In the video, a line of men can be seen giving a powerful salute and shouting “Come join us” three times, with one of them shouting “For all our fallen comrades!” – A typical rallying cry at neo-fascist events.
“This is an unacceptable disgrace in a European democracy,” said Carlo Calenda, leader of the centrist Action party.
A memorial service for Acca Larentia’s murder is held every year, but opposition parties say such expressions of pro-fascist sentiment are illegal and called for an investigation.
“It’s like 1924,” Democratic leader Ellie Schlein said, referring to the year when fascist leader Benito Mussolini won big electoral victories before shutting down multiparty politics in Italy.
“What happened is unacceptable. As enshrined in the constitution, neo-fascist groups must be disbanded,” she added.
Italy’s post-war constitution prohibits the reorganization of Mussolini’s disbanded fascist party, but far-right groups have gotten around the issue by giving their organizations new names and claiming to be new groups.
The Italian Brothers had no immediate comment on the neo-fascist rally, but Foreign Minister Antonio Taggiani, who heads the more moderate Forza Italia group, said any celebration of the dictatorship should be condemned.
“There is a law in our country that prohibits us from apologizing for fascism,” he said.
Meloni admired Mussolini when he was younger, but has since changed his position and said in 2021 there is “no room” for “nostalgia for fascism, racism and anti-Semitism” in the party. .
(Reporting by Crispian Ballmer and Angelo Amante; Editing by Alvise Armellini and Mark Heinrich)