Primavalle Massacre 'one of darkest pages' says Meloni

(ANSA) - ROME, APR 16 - The lefttist militant Primavalle Massacre that killed two sons of a neofascist Italian Social Movement (MSI) local leader in the Rome neighborhood in 1973 was one of the darkest pages in modern Italian history, Premier Giorgia Meloni said on the 50th anniversary of the April 16, 1973 arson attack by members of Potere Operaio (Workesr Power) on Sunday.
    In the fire, the eight-year-old and 22-year-old sons of MSI Primavalle secretary Mario Mattei were killed.
    "On 16 April fifty years ago Italy and Rome experienced one of the darkest pages of national history", said Meloni in a message to the president of the Fratelli Mattei Association, Giampaolo Mattei, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary commemoration ceremony of the Primavalle massacre.
    "What we can do today is to keep the memory of what happened alive, to avoid the danger of relapses and lead Italy and our people towards a full and true national pacification," added Meloni, whose conservative Brothers of Italy (FdI) party has its historical roots in the MSI and features a Mussolini tricolor flame in its logo, although the premier has repeatedly condemned Fascism and its "odious" laws against the Jews.
    Fascist and anti-fascist militants clashed regularly in Italy during the 1970s and there were deaths on both sides.
    The late 1960s to late 1980s also saw many deaths in Italy's Years of Lead of rightist and leftist political terrorism.
    photo: Victims Virgilio (R) and Stefano Mattei (ANSA).