Earlier this month he caused substantial controversy by claiming those convicted of the 1980 Bologna rail station bombing were innocent.

“The song Black September by his ‘identity rock band’ 270 Bis is clearly anti-semitic,” opposition centre-left Democratic Party (PD) national secretariat coordinator Marta Bonafoni, chair of the House transparency committee, said.

“Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni can’t ignore De Angelis’s antisemitism,” PD MP Andrea Casu also said on X (formerly Twitter).

“She can no longer pretend not to notice, #DeAngelisresign”.

De Angelis is employed by Lazio Governor Francesco Rocca, an independent who is however close to Meloni’s right-wing Brothers of Italy (FdI) party.

Rome City Council Heritage and Housing Policy pointman Tobia Zevi was also scathing in his comments.

“Rocca must sack De Angelis. I, as a Jew, know that this antisemitic lyric stains the institutions.”

Green and Left Alliance chief Angelo Bonelli said: “De Angelis must resign, and Meloni’s silence is guilty”.

The PD said on August 8 that the furore regarding De Angelis’s comments about the 1980 Bologna train-station bombing could easily be closed with his apology.

Lazio Governor Rocca had said that his communications chief was staying put despite sparking the huge political row.

De Angelis posted via social media that he knew “for certain” that three of the five people convicted of the bombing, Giusva Fioravanti, Francesca Mambro and Luigi Ciavardini, former members of the NAR right-wing terrorist group, “had nothing to do with the Bologna massacre”.

He said the August 2 anniversary of the bombing “is always a very difficult day for anyone who knows the truth, which every year is trampled over, even by the highest figures of the State”.

The comments sparked outrage from the parties opposed to Rocca’s right-wing regional executive in Lazio, who said De Angelis was trying to re-write history and called for him to quit or be fired.

Other right-wing personalities have long claimed that Fioravanti and Mambro are innocent arguing that they have confessed to all their other crimes except for the Bologna bombing.

ANSA