Fascists give fascist salutes on anniversary of Mussolini’s death
In Italy, dozens of fascists chanted fascist slogans and saluted the fascist dictator on the anniversary of Mussolini’s death
Dozens of people raised their arms in a fascist salute and shouted a fascist chant during ceremonies Sunday to honor Italian dictator Benito Mussolini on the 79th anniversary of his execution.
Dressed in black, these nostalgics marched through the northern Italian towns where Mussolini was arrested and executed at the end of World War II, as well as Predappio, Mussolini’s birthplace and final resting place.
Anti-fascist partisans in Dongo, on the shores of Lake Como, stopped Mussolini on April 27, 1945, as he attempted to flee with his lover, Clara Petacci, following the Allied liberation of Italy.
According to a video from the La Presse news agency, a group of his supporters marched through Dongo on Sunday and buried 15 roses at the lake in remembrance of the ministers and officials from the Mussolini government who perished there.
The following day, the partisans executed Mussolini and Petacci in the nearby lakeside town of Mezzegra-Giulino, where commemorations also took place on Sunday. After a rendition of Taps, the leader of the commemorations shouted “Comrad Benito Mussolini,” and the crowd responded with a stiff-armed fascist salute and chant of “present.”
Several police trucks separated the demonstrators in Dongo from hundreds of protesters who sang the famous partisan song “Bella Ciao” during the ceremony.
Mussolini’s execution anniversary fell on the same day that Premier Giorgia Meloni was leading her far-right Brothers of Italy party in an election rally in the city of Pescara. A chief of staff in Mussolini’s last government founded the Italian Social Movement in 1946, drawing fascist sympathizers and officials into its ranks after Mussolini’s downfall.
Meloni, who joined the MSI’s youth branch as a teenager, has tried to distance her party from its neo-fascist roots. She condemned fascism’s suppression of democracy and insisted that the Italians handed fascism over to history decades ago. On Sunday, Meloni accused the left of being more of a totalitarian threat to Italy today.
She noted that Communist Party members had made a formal complaint about the tent structures built on the Pescara beachfront to host the Brothers of Italy rally, during which Meloni announced she would head the party’s campaign ahead of the European Parliament elections in June.
“I note that the Communist Party still exists, and I say so to show where the nostalgics for totalitarianism are in Italy today,” she said.
She earned rounds of applause as she listed her government’s accomplishments since coming to power in 2022 and drew cheers when she reaffirmed her working-class roots.
“If you still believe in me, just write ‘Giorgia’ on the ballot, because I am and always will be one of you,” she said.
The message recalled one of her most famous campaign slogans, “I am Giorgia,” which emphasized her Christian nationalistic messaging and went on to become a viral meme and the title of her memoir.
Source: AP
