Democratic Party (PD) Secretary Elly
Schlein on Monday led opposition outrage at the Fascist salutes
made on Sunday by about a thousand 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 in the street named after a Roman goddess.
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 from
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 by
the hundreds of demonstrators, who also shouted "present and
correct", like Mussolini's black shirts.
"We will present a question in parliament to (Interior) Minister
(Matteo) Piantedosi," said Schlein.
"What happened is not acceptable.
"Neofascist organizations must be dissolved, as stated by the
Constitution".
The question, filed later Monday, asked authorities to say what
they intended to do to avoid recurrences of such events and to
combat "with all means the apology of Fascism and the
organisation of Fascist demonstrations".
The opposition left-wing populist 5-Star Movement (M5S) said it
would file a criminal complaint to Rome prosecutors after the
"extremely serious events including apology of Fascism".
The opposition in general called on Premier Giorgio Meloni and
her Brothers of Italy (FdI) party in particular, an heir to the
MSI, to condemn the Fascist salutes.
The PD said "Meloni's silence embarrasses Italy" after she
failed to speak out while other FdI members did.
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", with far right
victims of the Year of Lead just as important as far left ones.
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", and said other
cases of anti-far-right violence had been similarly and quietly
left to fade away.
One of the weapons used at via Acca Larentia was later found in
a hideout used by the biggest leftist protagonist of the years
of terror, the Red Brigades (BR).
FdI heavyweight Fabio Rampelli, a deputy House Speaker, said his
party was "light years away" from the Fascist salutes and had
not taken part in that demo, instead attending two alternative
events.
FdI issued a statement accusing the Left of hypocrisy in
apparently not being aware that the Acca Larentia 'massacre' had
been commemorated every year since 1978, and not doing anything
to stop the Fascist salutes that marked the ceremony even when
the PD was in power.
DIGOS security police said they will compile a report for Rome
prosecutors.
Centrist opposition Azione leader Carlo Calenda said the salutes
were "unacceptable in any European democracy".
Rome's Jewish community called the salutes an "unacceptable
outrage" that "rubs salt into our wounds".
Extraparliamentary Neofascist group CasaPound vowed: "we will
be there every January 7".
The MSI was first brought into the 'Constitutional arc" of
respectable political mainstream parties by Berlusconi in 1994
and morphed a year later under Fini's leadership into the more
moderate National Alliance, a more direct precursor of FdI.
Meloni has consistently condemned Mussolini's suspension of
democracy and its "odious" racial laws against the Jews but the
FdI still features in its logo the neofascist flame logo that
first appeared in the MSI when it was founded by Fascist
diehards after the Second World War.
FdI is in the European Conservatives caucus founded by former
British Prime Minister David Cameron.
Acca Larentia was a Roman fertility goddess.
The street named after her is in Rome's Tuscolano district.
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