WA few weeks before the parliamentary elections in Italy, Giorgia Meloni is making a striking effort to allay fears about her party in other European countries. In addition to proving the suitability of the Fratelli d’Italia (FdI) for the EU, she tried to refute the accusation that the FdI did not distance themselves from Italian fascism. Meloni condemned the suppression of democracy by fascism and its anti-Jewish laws. However, critics accused her of not having distanced herself from fascism as a whole. They now see themselves strengthened by the dispute over the symbol of the party, which has flared up in the past few days. The reason for this was the deadline for submitting the party symbols and list marks for the early election on September 25th.
The flame in the national colors green-white-red can be seen on the circular list symbol of the FdI under Meloni’s name and that of the party. The controversial symbol has accompanied the Republic of Italy since its birth. In December 1946, the neo-fascist party Movimento Sociale Italiano (MSI) was founded by representatives and supporters of the Repubblica Sociale Italiana (RSI), the puppet state installed by the German occupying power under the leadership of the dictator Benito Mussolini, based in Salò on Lake Garda.
How serious is Meloni?
The MSI chose the flame as its symbol. The party leader of the MSI until 1987 was Giorgio Almirante (1914-1988), a staunch racist and anti-Semite who was a cabinet member in Mussolini’s Republic of Salò. In January 1995, at the Fiuggi Party Congress, the MSI was absorbed into the Alleanza Nazionale (AN) under the leadership of Gianfranco Fini. Fini swore off fascism and racism, especially castigating the anti-Jewish racial laws of Mussolini’s dictatorship. But Fini didn’t want to let go of the flame in the party symbol. Just as little as Meloni, when she founded the Fratelli d’Italia (FdI) in 2012, in which the AN should actually be merged.
Does the flame in the colors of the Italian tricolor symbolize the spirit of fascism, which shines into the future from Mussolini’s tomb in his hometown of Predappio, as convinced neo-fascists still believe today? Or does the flame simply represent Italian patriotism, which Meloni and her followers say is opposed to communist internationalism, both past and present? The 91-year-old Auschwitz survivor Liliana Segre, senator for life, asked Meloni at the weekend to remove the flame from the party logo – as an outward sign that she was serious about the alleged unequivocal condemnation of fascism.
But Meloni doesn’t want to know anything about that. The flame has “nothing to do with fascism”, rather it stands “for the recognition of the development of a democratic right in the history of our republic”, Meloni replied: “And we are proud of that.” Ignazio La Russa, vice president of the smaller parliamentary chamber and one of Meloni’s closest confidants among the Italian Brothers, reminded his Senate colleague Segre that her own husband, the conservative anti-fascist Alfredo Belli Paci (1920-2007), joined a party list led by Giorgio Almirante’s MSI in the 1970s and obviously didn’t touch the flame in the party emblem.
