(ANSA) - ROME, OCT 18 - A photo of Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini was removed form the industry ministry Tuesday after it was put on show along with all the other predecessors of outgoing Industry Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti for the 90th anniversary of the building.
    The ministry said the photo would be removed "to avert polemics and instrumentalizations".
    Giorgetti had previously pointed out that a photo of the dictator is in the premier's office too.
    "No one has noticed that (Mussolini's photo) is also in Palazzo Chigi, not only at the industry ministry," had said Giorgetti, who is tipped to take the key economy minister's portfolio in Georgia Meloni's likely new cabinet.
    Asked why the dictator's photo had been put up in his ministry now, Giorgetti replied that Mussolini had been the first corporations minister and that the photos of all the industry ministers in Italian history had been put on display to mark the 90th anniversary of the building, Palazzo Piacentini.
    "But if there's a problem we will remove it," said the League party bigwig.
    Newly elected Senate Speaker Ignazio La Russa, of Meloni's Brothers of Italy (FdI) party, said a photo of Il Duce was also in the defence ministry, where he served some years ago, and the dictator's name was written at the Fascist-era Foro Italico sports complex in Rome.
    "What are we doing, cancel culture, us too?", said the FdI bigwig. (ANSA).