Democratic Party (PD) Secretary Elly Schlein on Monday led opposition outrage at the Fascist salutes made on Sunday by participants at a ceremony commemorating the murder of two right-wing militants during Italy's 'Years of Lead' of political violence in the 1970s and 80s.
The salutes were made during a ceremony recalling the Acca Larentia massacre in which two members of the youth wing of the neo-fascist Italian Social Movement (MSI), Franco Bigonzetti and Francesco Ciavatta, aged 13 and 17, were shot dead, allegedly by far left militants, outside the party's Rome headquarters.
A third MSI youth wing member, Stefano Recchioni, 19, was fatally injured by a stray bullet during ensuing clashes by members of the youth wing, the Fronte della Gioventù, who rioted after the deaths, and police.
Then Fronte della Gioventù leader Gianfranco Fini, later a foreign minister in Silvio Berlusconi's second government in 2001 to 2006, was wounded by a gas canister.
"Rome, January 7, 2024. And it seems like 1924," Schlein said on social media in a post with a photo of the Fascist salutes.
"We will present a question in parliament to (Interior) Minister (Matteo) Piantedosi.
"What happened is not acceptable.
"Neofascist organizations must be dissolved, as stated by the Constitution".
The opposition called on Premier Giorgio Meloni and her Brothers of Italy (FdI) party in particular, an heir to the MSI, to condemn the Fascist salutes.
Lazio Governor and FdI bigwig Francesco Rocca was present at the ceremony but stressed that he had not been present when the salutes were made. He also said that commemorating the incident was important saying "there are no second-class deaths".
Former MSI bigwig and centre right post Berlusconi Forza Italia Senate Whip Maurizio Gasparri said the leftist militants who allegedly killed the two Fronte della Gioventu members were never apprehended and suggested the case had been buried by Rome police and prosecutors headquarters, which in those years was nicknamed by the media "the foggy port" for the number of cases that disappeared inside it.
He suggested that no serious effort was ever made to find the culprits, "so as not to displease the Left".
Centrist opposition Azione leader Carlo Calenda said the salutes were "unacceptable in any European democracy".
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