A scary Roman turn to the right? .... Check out this Guardian UK report from Rome.

[marmar]

Rome jumps right
The fascist salutes that greeted the election of a rightwing mayor in Italy's capital are just one sign of a worrying trend
John Hooper

April 29, 2008 2:30 PM | Printable version


What has happened in the Rome mayoral election is something that ought to resonate way beyond the city; way beyond Italy indeed.

Last night, there were scenes in the Italian capital of a kind not seen in Europe for many a long year. At the Campidoglio, the square created by Michelangelo in front of what is now Rome's city hall, far-right sympathisers celebrating the victory of Gianni Alemanno gave straight-arm salutes and chanted "Duce! Duce!" (the title, similar to Fuehrer, adopted by Italy's dictator, Benito Mussolini.

In an attempt to embrace the new reality, Silvio Berlusconi declared: "We are the new falange".

The citizens of the capital have elected a man who wears around his neck a Celtic cross. It was taken from the body of a young neo-fascist by the name of Paolo Di Nella who was a friend of Alemanno. Di Nella was murdered in the early 1980s in the one of the last killings associated with Italy's "years of lead" (so-called after the bullets that flew, fired by extremists of left and right).

Alemanno was a prominent figure in the period that followed. He was national youth leader of the old Italian Social Movement, the MSI. Unlike his wife, Isabella Rauti, the daughter of the diehard "social fascist" Pino Rauti, Alemanno went along with Gianfranco Fini's policy of embracing an outwardly softer line to gain voter acceptance and parliamentary influence.

But he remained an internal critic - a friend of those like Francesco Storace who wanted a less accommodating, more ideological approach. After being caught up in a vote-rigging scandal, Storace went off to found his own party. Most of his voters can be expected to have switched their backing to Alemanno in the runoff on Sunday and Monday. ......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/john_hooper/2008/04/rome_jumps_right.html