Shock and anger spread in Italy days after hundreds of people gave fascist salutes at a rally in Rome on Tuesday, sparking widespread condemnation and calls for action from the country’s far-right leaders.
A video circulating online shows hundreds of people giving the banned salute at an event on Sunday commemorating the 1978 murder of three neo-fascist youths in the Italian capital. There is.
As is known, murders in Acca Larencia are recorded every year, but this year they were shown in public, inviting criticism from opposition members due to the apparent lack of police intervention. There is.
The people in the video line up in at least a dozen lines and raise their right arms in salute, prompted by voices shouting from outside the frame, a practice that dates back to the regime of Italy’s fascist dictator Benito Mussolini.
They appeared to shout “present” three times in unison, in response to someone shouting “for all our fallen comrades,” according to a Reuters translation, typical of neo-fascist events. It is a rallying cry.
Under Italy’s post-World War II laws, the use of fascist symbols, including the full-arm salute, is prohibited.
The rally was held in front of the former headquarters of a postwar neo-fascist party called the Italian Social Movement (MSI), which became the backbone of the Italian Brothers Party, now led by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
Meloni took office in 2022 as Italy’s first female prime minister to lead a coalition government, giving the country its most right-wing government since World War II. Although she admired Mussolini in her youth, she has since changed her position, saying there is no “room” for “nostalgia for fascism, racism and anti-Semitism” within her party. said.
“This video is clearly worrying, but not surprising,” said Daniele Albertazzi, a political science professor at the University of Surrey, who specializes in European radical right and contemporary Italian politics.
“In Italy, there are some right-wing groups of Italian Brothers that are ruling,” he said, “and they say they are still influenced not only by fascist ideas and values, but even by fascist iconography.” The facts are very clear.”
But the videos that have been circulating online in recent days were filmed in a way that reveals the scale of this year’s Acca Larentia gathering and the synchronicity of its participants, Albertazzi told NBC News. “They really look like a platoon of Nazi German soldiers,” he said.
“You can see them all moving as one and it’s very upsetting and the footage is very worrying,” he added.
‘Unacceptable’ Mr Meloni is now facing calls for the neo-fascist organization to be disbanded amid anger from Italy’s centrist and liberal political opposition.
Ellie Schlein, leader of the main opposition Democratic Party, said in a Facebook post that the scene in the video was “like 1924,” a reference to the year Mussolini tightened his rule and led Italy to a one-party dictatorship. Told. It then allied with Nazi Germany.
Mr Schlein vowed to tell Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi that what had happened was “unacceptable”, adding that the neo-fascist organization should be disbanded.
He is also the leader of the Centrist Azione (Action) Party. I reposted the video to X On Monday, it said this was an “unacceptable disgrace” in Europe’s democracies.
The video also prompted condemnation from Europe’s main umbrella organization for national Jewish communities.
European Jewish Congress: ‘Absolutely abhorrent’ said in X, share the video. “That act is from the darkest chapter of our history and must remain there.”
But in Italy today, it’s not uncommon to see fascist salutes at memorial services for neo-fascist extremists, says the Berlin-based author of “Mussolini’s Grandchildren: Fascism in Modern Italy,” who covers Italian politics. says expert David Broder. But the difference is that Italy’s brothers are now in power, and the heights of state power are not blaming them, but making excuses for them, he said.
“Although Meloni’s government insists that Mussolini is now history, it is less willing to explicitly sever ties with the neo-fascist martyrs,” Broder said.
And while the sight of people dressed in black standing in a line giving a fascist salute may seem shocking, it is not all that unusual in Italy today, and such displays are “routinely tolerated.” he said.
NBC News has reached out to Meloni’s office for comment about the video and the ensuing controversy. She has not yet publicly commented on the video.
“In my view, these things actually do far more damage to Meloni than they do to help,” Albertazzi said.
He said the time has really come to decide whether she wants to be seen as a radical, anti-democratic leader who does not condemn such things. “She has done a tremendous amount of work to be seen as trustworthy by the international media, and these things clearly undermine all of that,” he added. “I think she’s a disaster for her.”
It remained unclear Tuesday whether the people seen in the video had been identified or whether police were involved at any point, but Rai state television reported Monday night that Italian police were investigating the mass salute at the rally. It was reported that there was.
Deputy Prime Minister Antoni Tajani, who heads the center-right party in Meloni’s 14-month-old coalition government, was asked by reporters about the 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.