David Horowitz, center-right editor of the center-right Jerusalem Post, reports with concern some recent fascist nostalgia in Rome:
"Maybe we should shrug off the ongoing little rumpus in Rome
surrounding Lazio soccer team captain Paolo Di Canio’s recent Fascist
salute to his loyal fans during his team’s 3-1 victory over local
rivals Roma. After all, the player remarked of the gesture, ‘it was
only to celebrate.’ It was ‘nothing to do with political behavior of
any kind,’ insisted Di Canio, who has a tattooed homage to Benito
Mussolini on his arm and in his autobiography called the fascist
dictator ‘a very principled, ethical individual.’
And maybe it’s no big deal that Il Duce’s daughter, far-right
politician Alessandra, swooned delightedly over ‘How nice that Roman
salute was. It delighted me so much. I shall write him a thank-you
note.’" (J.Post, Jan. 14)
Alessandra is actually Mussolini’s granddaughter, and leader of a fascist breakaway faction from the now mainstreamed Movimento Sociale Italiano (MSI), now called the National Alliance, stripped of its racist past by nimble right-wing politico Foreign Minister Gianfranco Fini, whose rapprochement with the ethno-nationalist-theocratic Israeli state ironically cemented his rehabilitation from his far-right roots. He drew fire from Mussolini on that trip for calling the period of fascist rule the most "shameful chapter in the history of our people." (BBC, Nov 27, 2003)
Alessandra, a former model and actress, went on to found the Libertà d’Azione (Freedom of Action – LDA) which later joined Alternativa Sociale, a new coalition which also joined Roberto Fiore’s Forza Nuova and Adriano Tilgher’s Fronte Sociale Nazionale to run for the European Parliament election of June 2004. The coalition won 1.2 percent of the vote and earned one seat for Mussolini. [Note the white power flag at Alternativa Sociale link.] (Wikipedia)
However, Mussolini’s new party was found to have forged signatures, and prevented from participating in the regional elections of Lazio by lower court rulings. Alessandra went on hunger strike in a camper outside the courthouse. On March 23, a high court ruled in her parties’ favor, allowing Alternativa Sociale to participate in the elections. (AP, March 23)
