Row over 'Merry X Mas' anti-partisan corps in Biella

(ANSA) - ROME, DEC 7 - A row has erupted in the northern town of Biella over a Christmas illumination put up near National Partisans Association ANPI's local office spelling out "Merry X Mas", or the name of the former elite frogmen WWII unit that targeted partisans under the Nazi puppet Italian Social Republic.
    The local mayor first said he would take down the X Mas reference but then, after talks with the centre-left Democratic Party (PD) who had protested about "this offensive and provocative act", decided to leave it up.
    The X Mas, a crack corps led by Junio Valerio Borghese, first found renown with daring raids against allied shipping but their fame was later blemished by their collaboration with the Nazis in rounding up and executing partisans.
    Rightwingers sometimes still hail them in order to irk those on the left.
    photo: Borghese, who led an aborted coup d'etat in Italy in December 1970 (ANSA).