ROME (AP) — Italian opposition politicians on Monday accused far-right Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s government of how hundreds of demonstrators at a rally in Rome were banned without police intervention. He demanded an explanation of how he was able to give a fascist salute.
The rally, held in a working-class neighborhood on Sunday night, 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 in the rally, participants raised their right arms in a straight salute reminiscent of Benito Mussolini’s fascist dictatorship. Under postwar law, the use of fascist symbols is prohibited, including the full arms salute, also 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.
Shriners and others are outraged by the use of fascist salutes at rallies, sarcastically pointing out that last month, theatergoers at La Scala’s premiere at La Scala’s premiere chanted “Long live anti-fascist Italy!” The man was quickly surrounded by police from Italy’s anti-terrorist squad.
“If you shout ‘Long live anti-fascist Italy’ in a theater, you will be identified (by the police), but if you go to a neo-fascist rally with a Roman salute and a banner, you will not be identified,” Schlein said in the paper. Ta. Post on social media platform X. And she added: “Doesn’t Meloni have anything to say?”
Rai state television reported Monday night that Italian police were investigating the mass salute at the rally.
Deputy Prime Minister Antoni Tajani, who heads the center-right party in Meloni’s 14-month-old coalition government, was grilled by reporters over the uproar over the fascist salute.
“We are certainly a force that is not fascist. We are anti-fascist,” Tajani said at a news conference on another issue. Tajani, who also serves as foreign minister, pointed out that Italian law prohibits supporting fascism. “All rallies supporting the dictatorship must be condemned,” he said.
Leaders of Italy’s small Jewish community also expressed regret at the fascist salute.
“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 anti-Jewish laws helped pave the way for the expulsion of Italian Jews during the German occupation of Rome at the end of World War II.
The rally was held on the anniversary of the killing of young people in front of the offices of what was then the neo-fascist Italian Social Movement, which was formed after World War II to attract people nostalgic for Mussolini. After the two young men were killed, a third far-right young man was killed in clashes with police during subsequent demonstrations.
Meloni, whose Italian Brotherhood party has neo-fascist roots, distanced himself from Mussolini’s dictatorship and declared that “for decades the Italian right has consigned fascism to history.”
In the late 1970s, Italy was bloodied by violence between supporters of the extreme right and left. The bloody acts included deadly bombings linked to the far right, as well as assassinations and kidnappings claimed by the Red Brigades and other left-wing extremists.