“Today is a big day”launches Benito Mussolini, on December 18, 1932. He inaugurated the new town of Littoria, since renamed Latina. “We won our first battle, We are fascists, and so rather than looking to the past, we always look to the future.” Mussolini gave work to many Italians from all over the country, some are still grateful, says Alfredo De Santis, president of the Citizen Circle of Latina, a city of today 125,000 inhabitants: “That’s why there’s so much attachment to Mussolini’s ‘good soul’ here – which I understand, but up to a point!”
Giorgia Meloni, considered by some to be the heiress of the fascist leader, will she become the first president of the Italian Council? Italians are called to vote on Sunday, September 25 for legislative elections. For many months now, it has been his far-right party, Fratelli d’Italia, which has been at the top of the voting intentions. A party born barely ten years ago but whose legacy is still too closely linked, according to some, to Benito Mussolini.
Alfredo De Santis is not nostalgic for fascism, he also challenges Giorgia Meloni who, according to him, must abandon the tricolor flame, symbol of his party Fratelli d’Italia but which was also that of the Italian Social Movement (MSI) , neo-fascist party created in 1946 by dignitaries of the fallen regime of Mussolini.
Eccolo qui, il nostro bel simbolo depositato per le prossime elezioni. A symbol of the quality andiamo fieri. Il 25 September scegli @FratellidItalia#VotaFDI #Meloni pic.twitter.com/gXzjFA0r1M
— Giorgia Meloni ن (@GiorgiaMeloni) August 13, 2022
The younger generation is of course less marked by this heritage, but Paolo, 18, feels the weight of the past in his city. He believes that Giorgia Meloni remains ambiguous about her links with fascism. “She maintained that Mussolini was a good politician, it was in the 1990she recalls. She considered him to be the best politician of the last century. So she was surely inspired by some of his ideas.”
Giorgia Meloni and her party are considered backward on societal issues and civil rights. The deputy who could succeed him in Latina, Chiara Colosimo, is a faithful of the same generation. She has been with her from the start. She explained her position on abortion on the Fanpage site (site in Italian): “We have never said we want to repeal Abortion Law 194. We are asking for the full application of the law, if a woman thinks she should have an abortion, whether she can actually choose to or not!” Give the right not to have an abortion. Giorgia Meloni also reminds us that Fratelli d’Italia has already sought to make access to abortion more complicated in the regions that the party leads.