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Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi
said Tuesday 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 is cause for
indignation.
"There is no doubt" that what happened at the demonstration
commemorating the 1978 Acca Larentia massacre in Rome "arouses
indignation", Piantedosi told a hearing of the Senate's
Extraordinary Commission against intolerance, racism,
anti-Semitism and incitement to hatred and violence.
"It is contrary to our acquired culture," he continued.
"And the indignation is transversal," said the minister, adding
however that "bans and non-observance" of demonstrations "is
counterproductive and less fruitful".
Earlier the centre-left opposition Democratic Party (PD)
announced that it had filed a bill to better counter the
promotion and glorification of fascist ideology and symbols,
which is a crime in Italy.
"As deputies and senators of the PD, we have filed a bill to
make the repression of apology of fascism and neo-fascist
subversive phenomena more effective," said PD lawmaker Andrea De
Maria on X, formerly Twitter.
"If the entire parliament supported it, it would clarify the
existing legislation and strengthen it," he added.
The PD on Monday led opposition outrage at Sunday's Fascist
salutes episode 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.
European People's Party (EPP) President Manfred Weber also
commented on the episode Tuesday, saying there is no place for
the Fascist salute in Europe.
"In Europe there is no place for the Fascist salute and we
condemn it in the strongest terms," said Weber.
"We fully agree with and welcome the clear position taken by
Deputy Premier Antonio Tajani on this issue," he added.
On Monday Tajani said his centre-right Forza Italia party, a
member of the EPP, is "anti-fascist" and that "all
demonstrations of support for dictatorships must be condemned".
"There is a law stating that you cannot make an apology of
fascism in our country, it is forbidden by law," he added.
However, amid the furore, Senate Speaker Ignazio La Russa said
Tuesday that making Fascist salutes is not necessarily always a
crime.
"The fact that there is uncertainty about whether certain
gestures in commemoration cases (are considered criminal) does
not help to resolve the issue," La Russa, a founding member of
Premier Giorgia Meloni's right-wing Brothers of Italy (FdI)
party whose roots go back to the MSI, told Italian dailies.
He said there were "conflicting rulings" about whether such acts
were criminal, adding that he was looking forward to an upcoming
ruling by the Supreme Court of Cassation regarding the crime of
apology of Fascism.
He added that FdI had nothing to do with what happened at
Sunday's ceremony.
Vittoria Baldino, an MP for the opposition 5-Star Movement
(M5S), blasted La Russa's comments in a Facebook post,
describing them as "horrific".
Several opposition politicians have called on Meloni to condemn
what happened.
The DIGOS special security and political police branch,
meanwhile, have submitted an initial report to prosecutors on
the Fascist salutes.
Investigating officers have reportedly already identified some
participants in the episode.
The DIGOS is said to be using video surveillance footage to
reconstruct what happened during the event where the salutes
were made.
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