Italy’s new prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, this week defended his decision to include neo-fascists in his Cabinet, rejecting international concern expressed over the issue.
Berlusconi charged those criticizing his new Cabinet with “bad faith” and said they were spreading a campaign of “disinformation.”
Berlusconi’s 25-member Cabinet was sworn in Wednesday as part of Italy’s 53rd government since World War II.
Five of its 25 ministers are members of the National Alliance, the far right-wing movement at whose core is the Italian Social Movement, a party that was formed after the war by supporters of defeated fascist dictator Benito Mussolini.
The day after Berlusconi’s defense, however, the speaker of the Italian Senate said he could understand European concern over the issue.
Speaker Carlo Scogniamiglio blamed neo-fascist leader Gianfranco Fini for helping fuel the controversy, particularly with his remark last month calling Mussolini “the greatest statesman of the century.”
“It was an inopportune remark which had a very negative effect on public opinion,” Scogniamiglio told a news conference. “To recall one name can have more of an impact than 100 speeches.”
Scogniamiglio, who is a member of Berlusconi’s Forza Italia party but holds a position that puts him above party politics, said the National Alliance, though right-wing, was not neo-fascist per se.
But, he added, “nobody can pretend not to know that it derives from the (Italian Social Movement), which in turn has its roots in the fascist experience.
‘THEY HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH FASCISM’
“In Italy, we know the representatives of the National Alliance well, and we know they have nothing to do with fascism. But outside Italy memories of what fascism was remain,” he said.
Viewed from outside, he said, “It is understandable that there is deep concern” — particularly since there are extreme right-wing movements in other European countries that do resemble true fascism.
In his first interview as prime minister, Berlusconi — a billionaire tycoon whose wide-ranging business interests include the media, retailing and construction — told state-run RAI television Wednesday night that his government was fully committed to democracy.
“All Italians can be absolutely sure that what they have before them is a government that believes in the fundamental principles” of freedom, democracy, respect and tolerance for others, he said.
National Alliance members he knew “have nothing to do with a distant past, to put it clearly, with fascism. They are so far from fascism that they can be considered anti-fascists,” he said.
National Alliance leader Gianfranco Fini, who for years led the Italian Social Movement, has tried to rid his party of its jackboot image. “The Berlusconi government marks the end of the first republic and the ideological ostracism of the right,” Fini, 42, said Tuesday.
“We have reached an objective. Some people believed that speaking of the right in government was a vain illusion. Tonight, Italians acknowledge that this is not so.”
Fascism was “finished in 1945,” he repeated on Wednesday, but he has so far failed to repudiate fascist ideology.
European leaders who have expressed concern at the inclusion of neo-fascists in the Italian government included French President Francois Mitterrand and Belgian Foreign Minister Willy Claes.
The European Parliament last week also passed a motion calling on Italian President Oscar Luigi Scalfaro to make sure that the new government “remains faithful to the fundamental values underlying the creation of the European Community.”
The European Parliament is the legislative body of the 12-member European Union, formerly called European Community.
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