A fascist rally took place in Rome, angering the Italian opposition (video)

Last Sunday, a fascist rally was held in Rome, dedicated to the events of half a century ago, when three neo-fascists were killed in the capital of Italy.

It took place in front of the former headquarters of the neo-fascist Italian Social Movement party. It was she who later transformed into today’s conservative party “Brothers of Italy”, at the origins of which stood Giorgia Meloni, Prime Minister of Italy. After the rally, the Italian opposition called on the government to ban far-right parties.

The action was dedicated tells BBC, events in which three neo-fascists were killed in Rome: two are believed to have been shot by left-wing radicals, and the third died at the hands of the police during the riots that began after the first attack. No one was ever punished for the murders.

At the rally, hundreds of black-clad men raised their arms in the so-called Roman salute, a fascist salute during Mussolini’s reign. Some shouted the slogan “for our fallen comrades,” which is considered an integral part of neo-fascist gatherings.

Carlo Calenda, head of the centrist Action party, said: “This is an unacceptable disgrace for European democracy.” Victor Fadlun, president of the Jewish community of Rome, says:

“The Roman salute is an unacceptable insult, and first of all an insult to the memory of all victims of Nazi fascism. For us Jews of Rome, this gesture is like pouring salt into our wounds, it reminds us of mourning and suffering that is renewed from generation to generation. And it makes no sense to suggest that this could be an appropriate tribute to the fallen.”

Ellie Schlein, head of the center-left Democratic Party, wrote on Facebook:

“It’s like 1924 (when Benito Mussolini’s fascist party came to power in Italy). Neo-Nazi organizations must be disbanded, as required by the Constitution.”

She called on Giorgia Meloni to condemn the rally in Rome, and the government as a whole to “with all its might resist the apologists of fascism.” La Repubblica journalist Paolo Berizzi notes:

“The amazing thing is that such open displays of respect for fascism are allowed in Italy, while in Germany and other countries they are prohibited, and there apologists for fascism would be arrested.”

The journalist says that similar events with fascist greetings and rituals take place every year throughout the country, regardless of who is currently in power: “But after the authoritarian representatives of the Meloni government several times openly expressed nostalgia for fascism, number of such events [в Риме] this year has increased significantly.”

The post-war Italian constitution banned Mussolini’s fascist party, as well as fascist ideology and propaganda, but the far right found a way around this ban by creating their organizations under new names and claiming that they had a new essence, writes the BBC.

The ruling party has not yet commented on the fascist rally, only the vice-president of the lower house of the Italian parliament, Fabio Rampelli, said on Monday that his Brothers of Italy party is “light years away” from neo-fascism.

Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, who heads the moderate Forza Italia party, was one of the first in the government to say that the glorification of dictatorship should be condemned: “There is legislation that does not allow fascism in our country.”

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni spoke highly of Benito Mussolini in her youth, but has since changed her view and in 2021 said there was no place in her party for “nostalgia for fascism, racism or anti-Semitism.”

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