The future Italian government is likely to be as far right as any since World War II. So it is no coincidence that ministries in Rome quarrel with portraits of Mussolini in their ancestral gallery. Hang or let hang is the question.
Photos of fascist dictator Benito Mussolini in a government building in Rome have caused a stir and outrage in Italy. The Ministry for Economic Development (Mise) had hung up pictures of all previous department heads in its headquarters, the Palazzo Piacentini, for 90 years. Former minister Pierluigi Bersani complained on Twitter about being pictured next to Mussolini on a wall and asked the Mise to remove his photo.
According to the Ansa and Adnkronos news agencies, the ministry promptly replied that Mussolini’s photo was being taken down to avoid controversy. But that really got them going. In its statement, the ministry pointed out that a photo of Mussolini also hangs in the ancestral gallery of the heads of government in the Palazzo Chigi – the seat of the prime minister.
The country’s largest trade union confederation (CGIL) called the incident “serious” and “pathetic”. The right-wing Senate chairman Ignazio La Russa, who himself has a statue of the “Duce” next to other fascist memorabilia in his living room, complained about the criticism and asked: “Are we doing Cancel Culture now too?” He recalled that a picture of Mussolini also hung in the Ministry of Defense and that the inscription “Mussolini Dux” (“Mussolini Leader”) still stands on an obelisk in front of the Olympic Stadium in Rome.
The topic is currently sensitive in Italy. On the one hand, next week marks the 100th anniversary of the so-called March on Rome and the seizure of power by the fascists under Mussolini on October 27, 1922. On the other hand, following the election victory of Giorgia Meloni and her Fratelli d’Italia party, the country is about to Get a government that’s more right-wing than it’s been since the end of World War II. Meloni should be commissioned to form a cabinet this week and be sworn in shortly thereafter.
In earlier statements, Meloni had described Mussolini as a “good politician”. With a view to Italy’s fascist past, she began to strike a different note. In her party there is “no place for nostalgics of fascism, for racism and anti-Semitism,” said the ultra-right politician in October 2021.
