Italian opposition politicians on Monday accused the government of far-right Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni of how hundreds of demonstrators at a rally in Rome could perform the banned fascist salute without police intervention. I asked him to explain if he was able to do it.
The rally, held Sunday night in a working-class neighborhood, commemorated the 1978 killing of two members of a neo-fascist youth group in an attack later claimed by far-left extremists.
At one point during Sunday’s rally, participants gave a full-frontal salute reminiscent of Benito Mussolini’s fascist dictatorship. Under post-war legislation, the use of fascist symbols is prohibited, including the straight-armed gesture known as the Roman salute.
Democratic Party leader Ellie Schlein, the leader of parliament’s main opposition party, was among those who called on Monday for Interior Minister Meloni to appear in parliament to explain why police apparently did nothing to stop the rally. was.
The salute enraged Schlein and others, who sarcastically pointed out that theatergoers at Milan’s Teatro alla Scala last month shouted “Long live anti-fascist Italy” and were immediately surrounded by police from Italy’s anti-terrorism squad.
“If you shout “Long live anti-fascist Italy” in the theater, you will be identified.” [by police]; not if you go to a neo-fascist rally with a Roman salute and a banner,” Schlein posted on social media platform X. “Doesn’t Meloni have anything to say?”
State television station Rai reported Monday night that Italian police were investigating the mass salute.
Deputy Prime Minister Antoni Tajani, who heads the centre-right party in Meloni’s 14-month-old coalition, was asked by reporters about the new government.
“We are certainly a force that is not fascist. We are anti-fascist,” Tajani said at a press conference. Tajani, who also serves as foreign minister, pointed out that Italian law prohibits support for fascism. “All rallies supporting the dictatorship must be condemned,” he said.
Leaders of Italy’s small Jewish community also expressed disappointment.
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“It is right to remember the victims of political violence, but that cannot happen to the hundreds of people who will take the Roman salute in 2024,” said Ruth, who led Rome’s Jewish community for several years. Mr. Dulegero wrote about X.
Mussolini’s laws helped pave the way for the expulsion of Italian Jews during the German occupation of Rome at the end of World War II.
Sunday’s rally was held outside the offices of the neo-fascist Italian Social Movement, formed after World War II, which brought together people nostalgic for Mussolini on the anniversary of the killing. Two far-right young men were killed, followed by a third person killed in clashes with police at a demonstration.
Meloni, whose Italian Brotherhood party has neo-fascist roots, distanced himself from Mussolini’s authoritarian policies, declaring that “for decades the Italian right has consigned fascism to history.”
In the late 1970s, Italy was bloodied by violence between extreme right-wing and left-wing sympathizers. These included deadly bombings linked to the far right, as well as assassinations and kidnappings claimed by the Red Brigades and other left-wing extremists.