2023-04-25 17:00:09
The Prime Minister of Italy, Giorgia Meloni, has participated in the ceremony of laying wreaths to mark Italy’s National Liberation Day. This day marks the end of fascism and the Nazi occupation in 1945.
Italians usually gather on Liberation Day and this day is marked with parades.
But for the first time since World War II, Italy is being led by a party whose origins lie in the state’s post-fascist past.
The marking of this day this year is accompanied by contradictions.
Among the people who attended the ceremony held in Rome was the collector of fascist memorabilia, Ignazio La Russa, who is the president of the Senate. The post he holds is the second in the state, according to the Italian Constitution.
A few days ago, he was quoted as saying: “There is no reference in the Italian Constitution to anti-fascism.”
His comments prompted criticism from centre-left politicians who called for him to resign.
Even in the past, La Russa had made statements regarding Italy’s fascist past.
The far-right Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, has refused to condemn La Russa’s statements, but has tried to distance herself from fascism, through a letter published in the Italian newspaper, Corriera della Sera.
“For years, right-wing political parties in Parliament have displayed their incompetence through nostalgia for fascism,” she said.
Calling Liberation Day a “festival for freedom”, Meloni wrote that “the essence of April 25 has been and continues to be the affirmation of democratic values, which fascism had trampled and which we find included in the republican Constitution”.
She accused politicians of using fascism as a “tool to delegitimize political opponents: a kind of weapon for mass exclusion”.
Meloni leads Italy’s most right-wing government since World War II. Her party, the Brothers of Italy, is the direct political successor of the Italian Socialist Movement, which was formed after the war by members of Benito Mussolini’s Fascist Party.
When she was 19 years old, Meloni declared for a French television:
“I think that Mussolini was a good politician. Everything he has done, he has done for Italy. In the last 50 years, we have not had any politician like him”.
She has tried to present herself as a credible leader in Europe since becoming Italy’s prime minister six months ago. Meloni has surprised Italians and European allies by taking a more moderate stance on a range of issues, from Italy’s state budget to the support he has provided for NATO and Ukraine./REL
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