Proud of not being antifascist?

A new debate, trying to revise some judgments about the role of Fascism, recently started in Italy.

Let’s go back to 2003 when, during a trip to Jerusalem, President Gianfranco Fini, actual leader of Alleanza Nazionale, in order to cope once and for all with charges of being the leader of a neo-fascist party, publicly said “Fascism represents the absolute evil”. As expected, such a strong statement caused a lot of turbulence inside his party.

The last one, few days ago, 7 September: the newly elected Major of Rome, Gianni Alemanno of Alleanza Nazionale, said during an interview that “Not Fascism, but Racial Laws represented the absolute evil” (the laws against the Jewish community in Italy, promulgated in 1938-1939, bereaving Jews of their civil rights). This caused such a storm of criticisms, that Alemanno one day later clarified “I condemn the liberticide outcome of fascism in Italy”.

On 13 September, also President Fini stated “Everyone who is democratic should be anti-fascist, and all the members of Alleanza Nazionale, being democratic, are also antifascist”.

However, it seems that an important part of Alleanza Nazionale’s voters do not recognize themselves in their leader’s words. A first response to Fini’s syllogism comes from Azione Giovani, the youth’s association of Alleanza Nazionale supporters. Yesterday, the website of Azione Giovani, section of Rome, opened with a letter from its President Federico Iadicicco to President Fini. The letter concludes “I struggled to find one good reason for being antifascist and I could not find any; in fact, I found many good reasons not to be antifascist”.

Azione Giovani is a very active political organization and enjoys a lot of attention from the media: we also had the opportunity to mention it in a recent post.

The Communist Mosquito

From `La Repubblica‘. Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi yesterday appeared on the stage of a convention organized by Azione Giovani, the young’s branch of Alleanza Nazionale. The meeting has been informal and ralaxed: “there is a communist mosquito!” Prime Minister addressed a small bug annoying him on the stage, and, in crushing it, “the liberal philosophy prevailed over its attack”.

After that, speaking about Italo Balbo, “in Libia he did great things, good things, and I recalled this fact also to Gheddafi“.

Again, speaking about the honeymoon with Italian voters, “since we are in charge [...] an exceptionally collaborative atmosphere begun.” And again “when you read about Berlusconi’s rage, you should keep in mind that `rage’ is a sentiment I do not know. What you read about disputes and frictions (inside the majority) is nothing but lies far from the truth.”

In concluding his talk, “I cannot help recommending to you my songs (written in collaboration with Mariano Apicella): they are the most beautiful of the recent years. One title? L’Ultimo Amore (Last Love). I also wrote Il Primo Amore (First Love).”

Bodies for sales at various prices

From `Il Corriere della Sera‘. The Government approved the draft for a law against prostitution. Such a law would punish with fine and imprisonment both people prostituting themselves along the streets and their customers. The draft was proposed by the Minister of Equal Opportunities Mara Carfagna. Carla Corso, founder of the Committee for the Civil Rights of Prostitutes, said “I’m surprised to hear that the Lady (Minister) abhors those who sell their body. She also used her body to build up her career: a search on the internet is enough to enjoy her feminine grace.”

A social experiment

The aim of this blog is to share with non Italian-speaking people the fun of Italian politics, where politicians state something just to deny it few hours later. I want to find the funny side of this tragic play by listing on a regular basis the most peculiar statements, followed by their punctual denials. In the long run – and persevering enough - my hope is that this blog will become a sort of seriocomic database documenting this critical period of Italian Republic.