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Rome mayor blocks plan to name street after fascist leader

Rome mayor Virginia Raggi is seeking to block a plan to name a street in the capital after Giorgio Almirante, the founder of the neo-fascist Italian Social Movement (MSI).

Rome mayor blocks plan to name street after fascist leader
Giorgio Almirante (R) pictured with Jean-Marie Le Pen, the founder of France's National Front, in 1985. Photo: AFP

Raggi was reportedly caught by surprise when a majority of politicians from her Five Star Movement and the far-right Brothers of Italy, a descendant of MSI, backed the move in a vote on Thursday.

Almirante established the party in 1946 in dedication to keeping the ideals of dictator Benito Mussolini alive, and led it until a year before his death in 1988. Almirante joined Mussolini’s Fascist Youth Movement at the age of 9.

Giorgia Meloni, leader of Brothers of Italy, was also a member of the youth wing of MSI, while the father of Luigi Di Maio, Italy’s deputy prime minister and leader of the Five Star Movement, was an activist for the party.

Meloni’s party celebrated the approval on Thursday as a “historic victory for the Italian and Roman right”.

Raggi has asked Five Star Movement advisors to prepare a motion preventing the naming of streets after fascists or those who exposed themselves as anti-Semitic or racist.

The vote came after Raggi pledged to rename streets currently named after politicians who signed the anti-Semitic Manifesto of Race during the fascist era.

“Rome is anti-fascist,” Raggi declared in January, adding that she hoped the capital could set an example to other Italian cities in removing the names which “represent a shame for our country”.

2018 marks 80 years since the charter was published, preparing the way for the Racial Laws which came into force later in 1938. Under these laws, Italian Jews were stripped of their citizenship and banned from working in certain professions or attending school.

 

PROTESTS

Thousands protest in Rome against fascist groups after green pass riots

An estimated 200,000 people descended on Rome on Saturday to call for a ban on fascist-inspired groups, after protests over Italy's health pass system last weekend degenerated into riots.

A general view shows people attending an anti-fascist rally called by Italian Labour unions CGIL, CISL and UIL at Piazza San Giovanni in Rome
People attend an anti-fascist rally called by Italian Labour unions CGIL, CISL and UIL at Piazza San Giovanni in Rome on October 16th, 2021. (Photo by Alberto PIZZOLI / AFP)

Carrying placards reading “Fascism: Never Again”, the protesters in Piazza San Giovanni — a square historically associated with the left — called for a ban on openly neofascist group Forza Nuova (FN).

FN leaders were among those arrested after the Rome headquarters of the CGIL trade union — Italy’s oldest — was stormed on October 9th during clashes outside parliament and in the historic centre.

Analysis: What’s behind Italy’s anti-vax protests and neo-fascist violence?

A man holds a placard reading "yes to the vaccine" during an anti-fascist rally at Piazza San Giovanni in Rome

A man holds a placard reading “yes to the vaccine” during an anti-fascist rally at Piazza San Giovanni in Rome on October 16th, 2021. Photo by Alberto PIZZOLI / AFP

“This is not just a retort to fascist ‘squadrismo’,” CGIL secretary general Maurizio Landini said, using a word used to refer to the fascist militias that began operating after World War I.

IN PICTURES: Demonstrators and far right clash with police in Rome after green pass protest

“This piazza also represents all those in Italy who want to change the country, who want to close the door on political violence,” he told the gathered crowds.

Last weekend’s riots followed a peaceful protest against the extension to all workplaces of Italy’s “Green Pass”, which shows proof of vaccination, a negative Covid-19 test or recent recovery from the virus.

The violence has focused attention on the country’s fascist legacy.

Saturday’s demonstration was attended by some 200,000 people, said organisers, with 800 coaches and 10 trains laid on to bring people to the capital for the event.

Workers from the Italian Labour Union (UIL) react during an anti-fascist rally in Rome

Workers from the Italian Labour Union (UIL) react during an anti-fascist rally in Rome on October 16th, 2021. Photo by Alberto PIZZOLI / AFP

It coincided with the 78th anniversary of the Nazi raid on the Jewish Ghetto in Rome.

Over 1,000 Jews, including 200 children, were rounded up at dawn on October 16th, 1943, and deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp.

General Secretary of the Italian General Confederation of Labour (CGIL), Maurizio Landini (C) delivers a speech as Italian priest Don Luigi Ciotti (R) looks on

General Secretary of the Italian General Confederation of Labour (CGIL), Maurizio Landini (C) delivers a speech as Italian priest Don Luigi Ciotti (R) looks on during the anti-fascist rally in Rome. Photo by Alberto PIZZOLI / AFP

“Neofascist groups have to be shut down, right now. But that has to be just the start: we need an antifascist education in schools,” university student Margherita Sardi told AFP.

READ ALSO: Covid green pass: How are people in Italy reacting to the new law for workplaces?

The centre-left Democratic Party, which has led the calls for FN to be banned, said its petition calling on parliament to do so had gathered 100,000 signatures.

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