Homage to Mussolini troops fans Italy fascist row
Stephen Brown | 08.09.2008 17:27
ROME (Reuters) - Italy's defence minister paid homage to pro-Nazi troops on Monday, the second senior conservative in two days to voice sympathy with fascism
Defence Minister Ignazio La Russa was speaking at an event marking the anniversary of Rome's resistance to Nazi occupation in 1943.
Rome's mayor, former neo-Nazi youth leader Gianni Alemanno, caused controversy on Sunday by saying he "does not and never has" considered fascism to be "absolute evil",
Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's government has faced accusations of racism and fascism since coming to office in May, mostly for its tough stance on illegal immigrants and crime.
Berlusconi's main allies are the National Alliance -- heirs to Benito Mussolini's fascists, who now present themselves as mainstream conservatives -- and the anti-immigrant Northern League. Alemanno and La Russa are from the National Alliance.
La Russa, speaking at a memorial for anti-fascists who fell defending Rome from German occupation, also recalled the "Nembo" parachute division from Mussolini's "Salo Republic" who fought alongside the Germans against the Allies.
"I would betray my conscience if I did not recall that other men in uniform, such as the Nembo from the RSI (Italian Social Republic) army, also, from their point of view, fought in the belief they were defending their country," the minister said.
Hundreds of Italian soldiers and civilians died in September 1943, just after an armistice was signed between the Allies and Italy, trying to stop the Germans from seizing control of Rome.
Italy's centre-left opposition accused La Russa and Alemanno of revisionism.
Alemanno said in an interview published while he happened to be visiting Israel that while Mussolini's race laws "were absolute evil", the whole fascist movement could not be condemned in the same terms.
"Many people joined up in good faith and I don't feel like labeling them with that definition," said Alemanno, who has tried to defuse criticism of his neo-Nazi past by meeting Rome's Jewish community and visiting monuments to Nazi victims.
Mussolini ruled Italy for more than two decades, allying it with Nazi Germany and enacting anti-semitic laws that ousted Jews from schools and public jobs and ultimately led to the death of nearly 6,000 Italian Jews in Nazi camps.
Centre-left opposition leader Walter Veltroni, former mayor of Rome, protested at Alemanno's comments by resigning from a City Hall committee planning a Holocaust museum for Rome.
Rome's mayor, former neo-Nazi youth leader Gianni Alemanno, caused controversy on Sunday by saying he "does not and never has" considered fascism to be "absolute evil",
Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's government has faced accusations of racism and fascism since coming to office in May, mostly for its tough stance on illegal immigrants and crime.
Berlusconi's main allies are the National Alliance -- heirs to Benito Mussolini's fascists, who now present themselves as mainstream conservatives -- and the anti-immigrant Northern League. Alemanno and La Russa are from the National Alliance.
La Russa, speaking at a memorial for anti-fascists who fell defending Rome from German occupation, also recalled the "Nembo" parachute division from Mussolini's "Salo Republic" who fought alongside the Germans against the Allies.
"I would betray my conscience if I did not recall that other men in uniform, such as the Nembo from the RSI (Italian Social Republic) army, also, from their point of view, fought in the belief they were defending their country," the minister said.
Hundreds of Italian soldiers and civilians died in September 1943, just after an armistice was signed between the Allies and Italy, trying to stop the Germans from seizing control of Rome.
Italy's centre-left opposition accused La Russa and Alemanno of revisionism.
Alemanno said in an interview published while he happened to be visiting Israel that while Mussolini's race laws "were absolute evil", the whole fascist movement could not be condemned in the same terms.
"Many people joined up in good faith and I don't feel like labeling them with that definition," said Alemanno, who has tried to defuse criticism of his neo-Nazi past by meeting Rome's Jewish community and visiting monuments to Nazi victims.
Mussolini ruled Italy for more than two decades, allying it with Nazi Germany and enacting anti-semitic laws that ousted Jews from schools and public jobs and ultimately led to the death of nearly 6,000 Italian Jews in Nazi camps.
Centre-left opposition leader Walter Veltroni, former mayor of Rome, protested at Alemanno's comments by resigning from a City Hall committee planning a Holocaust museum for Rome.
Stephen Brown
Comments
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Visiting monuments and meeting a Jewish community
08.09.2008 17:44
The hard facts are that the Northern league is a known supremacist party with a penchant
for oppressing an ethnic community, they have been given power by Berlusconi who
called the Roma 'A wave of Evil'
Going sight-seeing with some rabbis is not going to alleviate the harm that has been done
and that is ongoing with consistent abuse of rights by the Italian government and their new
fund-raising pals who objected to the nipple in the picture you have chosen to illustrate
this article.
Tiepolo's : 'Time Uncovering Truth' was inpainted because whomever Berlusconi is
in league with was offended at the sight of the nipple and asked for it's removal, without
being twee- thats two bits of radical cosmetic surgery by a government that has
pushed the bounds of violence and incitement and has not even got a slapped wrist
from the current EU presidency (who seems to be copperfastening his hold on Africa
and playing hockey with Vlad Putin!)
So mates and friends of Senors Maroni and Berlusconi like to set camps alight,
photograph ethnic children and play the dispossession game - for what-
Lebensraum???
Beth
"caused controversy" by saying what he was elected to say?
09.09.2008 09:14
A Paratroop regiment on the streets of the city and complete biometric census of the Roma community. It appears he didn't have to go the route of Naples to army deployment which we remember meant burning the camps. He did it all legally, openly and in our faces. The night he was elected the scene in the illustration occured. Throngs of happy supporters chanted "duce!" and gave the fascist salute in the city hall. I describe the photo just in case it can't stay up, because it's supposedly "not for public reproduction" & it is possible it won't stay online here on indymedia.
Alemanno was probably the reason that Ratzinger (papa ratzi), the german shepherd and representative of many strands of fascism openly referred to the repackaging of Italy's fascist past over the Summer. This was more than an instance of the kettle doth calleth the pottie opaque. Ratzinger obviously took sides on early 20th century fascism when he gave almost 500 dead of the Spanish civil war the first grade of "sainthood" naming them as "martyrs of the faith" rather than the usual "murdered in their beds or at their altars by godless reds and anarchists". Yet the repackaging and revitalisation of Italian fascism glibly arguing it's not a pure evil has raised his hackles. This last week he calls for RC participation in politics. It seems the flock of devouts who oppose fertility laws and brought Berlusconi back into power are not to be led by the same wolves as those who effectively are singing the past's praises (as above) pretending they've solved the past's wrongs (as reported by me here : "Berlusconi & Gadhafi finishing history, new centuries & stopping migrants"
"With Troops on the street, the Fascists must be in power" :
"Italy to increase Troop numbers on the street" :
We know Alemanno is neoNazi. We know minister of the interior, Roberto Maroni, is a Supremacist Facist & xenophobe. We know the Defence Minister Ignazio La Russ loves Mussolinni. We know Berlusconi brought this stew to the boil under our eyes over years. "The Economist" wrote it's "Berlusconi is not fit to rule Italy special" in 2001. Last week it won its lawsuit in an Italian court. It wasn't defamatory - it was & is true.
so where's the controversy?
Are we worried the far right might be coming back because of these statements?
Like Hello!!!
They are back.
& they are so secure they've nothing to hide.
They're lovin it.
Now before we lose another country, (because we're not saving Italy) it would be a good idea to spot which one's are going to turn next.
iosaf