Argument

In Italy, the government of Silvio Berlusconi seeks to rehabilitate fascism. >>

Silvio Berlusconi (72) becomes Italy's Prime Minister for the fourth time
Silvio Berlusconi and his People of Freedom Party (PDL) in alliance with the neo-Fascist National Alliance (AN) and the autonomist and populist Northern League (Lega Nord) swept general elections this weekend with an 11-point advantage. >>

“Berlusconi is the classic tyrant who thinks that what common mortals only dream, for him is permitted. The characteristic of the tyrant is the belief that he can do anything.” -- Norberto Bobbio, Italian philosopher >>

“I would not be respecting my conscience if I did not pay my respects to the soldiers of the social republic of Saló, who from their point of view also fought for the values of their native country and resisted the advance of the Anglo Americans in Italy. They also earn the respect of all those who regard the history of Italy with objectivity.” -- Giorgio Napolitano, President of Italy, during a ceremony commemorating the Rome resistance fighters of September 1943 >>

In Italy, On this national holiday marking the country’s liberation from fascism, Silvio Berlusconi declared that, while it was appropriate to acknowledge the anti-fascist resistance (Resistenza), it was also necessary to understand the motives of the “Ragazzi di Salò.” Berlusconi was referring to those Italian soldiers who defended Benito Mussolini’s “Republic of Salò.” This so-called “Italian social republic” established by the Italian fascists existed from 1943 to 1945 under the military protection of Germany’s Nazi regime in northern Italy. >>

The Italian social republic never sent anybody to the concentration camps; the Germans were to blame.” -- Giuseppe Ciarrapico, entrepreneur and senator Giuseppe Ciarrapico, a close friend of Silvio Berlusconi, during the spring election campaign -- >>

In Italy, in the evening in the nation’s major talk show the neo-President of the Chamber of Deputies, Gianfranco Fini, said that the events in Turin were much more “serious” than the murder in Verona. While in Verona, he reasoned, there was no ideological reference in the young man’s murder, in Turin “the radical Left was trying to justify with anti-Zionist slogans its authentic anti-Semitism and political-religious prejudices >>

In Italy, the victim of a beating by a Fascist-Nazi goon squad died in a Verona hospital today. >>

In Italy, at the opening of the huge Turin Book Fair—now competing with the Frankfurt Book Fair—the radical Left of the Turin Social Forum burned an Israeli flag in protest against Israel ’s “guest of honor” role at this year’s book show >>

In Italy, Fascist goon squads armed with wooden clubs carried out a “punitive expedition”, that is, an organized raid on shops of Asian immigrants in Italy’s capital. Ten or so men masked in scarves adorned with swastikas swooped down on immigrant-run grocery stores, a telephone call center, a laundry and various shops along the streets of one of Rome’s most multiethnic districts, smashing windows and the interiors of the stores. Yelling “dirty foreigner” and “bastards” >>

Human rights group Amnesty International has said it is extremely alarmed by what it calls a "climate of discrimination" in Italy. >>

"One of humanity's great conquests is indeed the overcoming of racism. Unfortunately, however, there are new and worrying examples of this in various countries, often linked to social and economic problems that nonetheless can never justify contempt or racial discrimination." -- Pope Benedict XVI, in his customary midday Sunday address, in which the Pope expressed concern at "recent examples of racism" and reminded Catholics it was their duty to steer others in society away from "racism, intolerance and [the] exclusion [of others]". >>

It was to be hoped fascism was not "resurfacing in our country under another guise". -- According to an editorial published by Italy's bestselling Catholic weekly, Famiglia Cristiana, condemning recent government moves against immigrants and Roma >>

Fascism as defined by Antonio Gramsci
A movement of the petty bourgeoisie reacting to a loss of political importance in society. It has two faces, one revolutionary, the other conservative. It starts by emphasizing its first face but it soon allies with capitalism and turns on its revolutionary wing. -- Antonio Gramsci, Communist thinker and co-founder of the Italian Communist Party >>