Italy: PM criticised by opposition after fascist chants by party’s youth wing

Rome: Italian opposition parties have rounded on the prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, after an investigative outlet published video clips and messages showing members of her far-right party’s youth wing engaging in fascist chants, Nazi salutes and antisemitic rants.

Undercover reporters from the investigative website Fanpage infiltrated groups and chat forums used by members of National Youth, the youth wing of Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party.

Fanpage published clips of National Youth members chanting “Duce” – a reference to Benito Mussolini – and “Sieg Heil”, and boasting about their familial connections to historical figures linked to neofascist terrorism.

Meloni is yet to comment on the investigation, prompting criticism from opposition parties including Five Star Movement (M5S) and the Democratic party. The Green and Left Alliance called for the dissolution of the youth movement.

On Monday a European Commission spokesperson said: “The point of view of the European Commission and of President Ursula von der Leyen on the symbolism of fascism is very clear: we do not believe it is appropriate, we condemn it, we think it is morally wrong.”
Two National Youth members resigned on Thursday, including one who had expressed her desire in a WhatsApp chat to vote “for Mussolini three times” in the European elections and made derogatory remarks about Black people.

Another member posted in a chat group: “Jewish people are a race and I despise them.”
The president of the Jewish Community of Rome, Victor Fadlun, called for “appropriate actions be taken” after the Fanpage reports. “It is imperative that society and institutions react strongly against all forms of hatred and discrimination,” he wrote on X.

Giovanni Donzelli, a Brothers of Italy MP and party organiser, said on Thursday: “We reiterate, there is no place in Brothers of Italy for racists, extremists, and antisemites. The statements heard in disseminated videos showing members of our party using language incompatible with the values of our political movement are unacceptable, despite the context in which they were captured and distributed.”
Fanpage has published two stories based on its investigation. Responding to the first story, which ran last week, the Brothers of Italy MP Luca Ciriani said the report “was built on the basis of fragmented, decontextualised images, taken in a private setting”.

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Established in 2014, National Youth has thousands of members and claims to be “the most significant youth movement among the Italian parties”. In December, Meloni thanked her party’s young supporters at a party festival, saying: “This is what so many envy of us, that we have young people who still believe in politics and militancy. It is rare; it is priceless.”
Meloni has always distanced herself from fascism, declaring in 2022 that the Italian right had “handed fascism over to history”.

Brothers of Italy was founded largely from the ranks of the now defunct Italian Social Movement (MSI), a neofascist party formed in 1946 by supporters of Mussolini’s regime and former high-ranking members of his fascist party. The new party shares MSI’s logo, an Italian tricolour in the form of a flame.