In an open letter to Corriere della Sera, the prime minister and leader of the right-wing Brothers of Italy (FdI) shared “some reflections” that she hoped might “contribute to making this anniversary a moment of rediscovered national harmony, in which the celebration of our newfound freedom helps us understand and strengthen Italy's role in the world as an indispensable bulwark of democracy”.
“I do this,” she added, “with the serenity of one in whom these reflections matured within the ranks of her own political affiliation some 30 years ago”, continued Meloni.
She added that “the parties representing the right in Parliament declared their incompatibility with any nostalgia for fascism” many years ago.
“The fundamental fruit of April 25 was, and remains without doubt, the affirmation of democratic values, which had been trampled by Fascism and which we find carved into the Republican Constitution.
“The patient negotiation aimed at establishing the principles and rules of our nascent liberal democracy - an outcome not unanimously desired by all components of the Resistance - resulted in a text (the Constitution) that set out to unite and not to divide.”
On Monday Italian Partisans group ANPI urged the prime minister to disassociate herself from Fascism after allegedly failing to do so since leading the right-wing to government in September 2022.
The call came against the backdrop of controversy involving Senate Speaker Ignazio La Russa, a top FdI exponent, in relation to his criticism of a Partisan attack in Rome that triggered the Ardeatine Caves reprisal massacre.
In a statement on Thursday he said that the post-war Constitution does not contain the word ‘antifascism’ and then decided to spend most of Liberation Day commemorating anti-Communist hero Jan Palach in Prague instead of visiting Nazi atrocity sites in Italy.
ANSA
