Italian opposition parties on Monday called for the dissolution of far-right parties after a video was released showing hundreds of men giving fascist salutes during a rally in Rome.
The demonstration was held on Sunday (7) in front of the former headquarters of the MSI group — a neo-fascist party that ended up transforming into the conservative Brothers of Italy party, which was co-founded by Giorgia Meloni, current Prime Minister of Italy.
The event marked the 46th anniversary of the murder of three neo-fascists on Via Acca Larentia in southeast Rome.
Two of the men were shot dead by suspected far-left militants, while the third was killed by police after a riot broke out shortly after the shooting. No one was ever convicted of the deaths.
In the video, lines of men can be seen giving stiff-arm salutes and shouting “present” three times while one of them shouted: “For all the dead comrades!” – a typical war cry at neo-fascist events.
“This is an unacceptable shame in a European democracy,” said Carlo Calenda, leader of the centrist Action party.
Ceremonies to remember the Acca Larentia murders take place every year, but opposition parties said such displays of pro-fascist sentiment were prohibited and demanded an investigation.
“It feels like 1924,” said Democratic Party leader Elly Schlein, referring to the year that fascist leader Benito Mussolini won a resounding electoral victory before ending multi-party politics in Italy.
“What happened is unacceptable. Neo-fascist groups must be dissolved, as determined by the Constitution,” he added.
The post-war Italian Constitution prohibits the reorganization of Mussolini's dissolved fascist party, but far-right groups got around the problem by giving their organizations new names and claiming to be new entities.
Brothers of Italy had no immediate comment on the neo-fascist rally, while Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, who leads the more moderate Forza Italia party, said any celebration of the dictatorship must be condemned.
“There is a law that establishes that you cannot support fascism in our country,” he said.
When he was younger, Meloni praised Mussolini, but has since changed his position, saying in 2021 that there was “no room” in his party “for nostalgia for fascism, racism or anti-Semitism.”
Source: CNN Brasil
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