In a country where post-World War II legislation prohibits fascist symbolism, including the distinctive salute with outstretched right arms raised upward, authorities have opened an investigation. But Meloni remained silent despite mounting pressure to condemn and disband the groups that participated.
Meloni, 46, a rising star of the global right, has made political contortions around the “f” word — fascism — for years. The tri-colored flame in the PID logo evokes a now-defunct party made up of the political remains of Mussolini's fascists. But Meloni strongly rejected this description of fascism, describing herself as a modern conservative.
Laws against the Roman salute are laxly enforced here, and the gestures seen on Sunday have been a fixture at far-right events for decades. Recent Italian prime ministers, even from the political left, have rarely made a fuss about its use. But Meloni's critics say she should be treated with a different standard, given the political tradition to which she belongs.
“Her silence is embarrassing,” Elie Schlein, head of the opposition Democratic Party, told parliament this week. “She remains a hostage of her past, from which she still does not want to distance herself.”
More than any other far-right European leader in the modern era, Meloni has succeeded in becoming a member of the club in the West. It has gained influence in Brussels and Washington by presenting itself as a reliable foreign policy partner, first and foremost by taking a tough stance on Russia. She is now said to be using her influence to try to persuade Hungary's far-right Prime Minister Viktor Orban to stop blocking EU aid to Ukraine.
But as Italy takes the helm of the G7, Meloni's critics have succeeded in at least one thing: putting it in an awkward position.
In recent days, at least one key figure in Meloni's party — the president of the Senate, Ignazio La Russa, who owns a collection of Mussolini memorabilia — has publicly questioned whether the salute might be legal in the context of memorial ceremonies. In 2021, several FDI officials were involved in a scandal after being filmed making fascist salutes and making racist jokes.
At the same time, Meloni's claims that she is not an extremist have made her vulnerable to scrutiny.
Meloni, who was a young activist in the neo-fascist Italian Social Movement (MSI) and whose current party was a result of its dissolution in the 1990s, described Mussolini's deportation of Jews to concentration camps as “the worst moment in Italian history” and said she had “no sympathy” for fascism. But opposition critics now see its silence as a sign of its unwillingness to completely repudiate the legacy of the Italian far right.
Italian television and social media are astonished by her silence. The Kremlin-backed Russia 1 network picked up on the incident, broadcasting footage as proof that “all the so-called post-war education theoretically aimed at separating Europeans from the Nazi legacy had been in vain.”
“despite of [the salutes have] “It has always happened, and it is important now because of who is at the head of the government,” Fiorenza Sarzanini, deputy editor of Corriere della Sera newspaper, told Italian TV channel La7. “He didn't just do that [Meloni] Do not distance yourself [from the rally]But La Russa doubted it might be a crime. It's forbidden, it's a crime called apologizing for fascism.
Such greetings are not uncommon at the more extreme far-right events here, including the annual celebration, held Sunday in an eastern Rome neighborhood in front of the old headquarters of the MSI movement. Brothers of Italy officials said their youth arm contributed greatly to the event at a different location about seven miles away.
The uproar was caused in part by the viral footage. But observers say the opposition, which has had difficulty challenging Meloni, sensed an opportunity in a year when European parliamentary elections are held in June. Meloni and far-right parties from across the continent are seeking major political gains, in part by cleansing their image and portraying themselves as having evolved away from their extremist roots.
Giovanni Orsina, director of the School of Government at the Luis Guido Carli University in Rome, speculated that Meloni had remained silent to avoid validating criticism from the left. But the fact that the footage has now been seen through the gauntlet may risk damaging its mainstream image.
“This government must tell the world that these are fringe groups and will not be tolerated,” he said. “And she's the only one who can say that.”
