Rome Rally Generates Leftist Hysteria.
Following on from a recent article on the British Movement Northern Region website about an upsurge in support for racial Nationalist politics across Europe, there is evidence of growing left-wing hysteria about the Nationalist resurgence as main stream media journalists react to the evidence before their eyes.
On Sunday January 7th 2024, Italian Nationalists assembled on the Via Acca Larentia in Rome to honour the memory of three Italian patriots killed at the location in 1978. The rally was organised by the Italian Nationalist organisation Casapound and was assembled to honour the fallen of the 1978 Acca Larentia Massacre.
The rally saw ranks of highly disciplined black shirted Italian Nationalists brought to respectful attention before the buildings on the Via Acca Larentia and the names of the dead of the 1978 massacre were called out and the assembled patriots responded with straight arm salutes and chanted “Presente!” It was video footage of this rally and ceremony that has sent left-wing journalists and politicians into a frenzy.
The buildings on Via Acca Larentia used to be the headquarters of the now defunct Italian nationalist organisation the MSI (Italian Social Movement) formed in the 1950’s by surviving ministers and members from the pre-1945 Fascist Party. The 1952 Scelba Law banned the original Italian Fascist Party and forbade the reorganisation of Fascism in Italy.
For a number of decades, the MSI was the leading Italian Nationalist organisation, often in the face of serious persecution by the Italian Communists in government and radical anarchists and the violent Red Brigades on the streets. The period of the late 1970’s was known as the ‘Years of Lead’ because of the number of politically motivated shootings and bombings, mostly carried out by the Marxist Red Brigades.
The Via Acca Larentia Massacre occurred in 1978 when two teenage members of the youth section of the MSI were gunned down by armed Communist terrorists on the street outside the MSI headquarters buildings, a third MSI teenager was killed later that night in clashes with police during riots in central Rome.
Although the political violence of the late 1970’s and early 1980’s is now largely a thing of the past, the Italian Communists have never been satisfied with the government’s response to public expressions of Italian Nationalism, what the mainstream media insists on calling “neo-fascism”.
Whenever the Italian Left is in control of the government, the Communists and Marxist Socialists always seek to introduce new legislation to curb their political opponents on the Nationalist right. In 1993, a left-wing Italian government passed the Mancino Law, which criminalised “hate speech” and so-called “racist violence”. The wearing of the black shirt and the straight arm ‘Roman salute’ are considered by most Italian leftists and liberals as a breach of this law.
Following on from the highly choreographed outcry over the Acca Larentia Massacre rally, the issue of the legality of people performing the straight arm salute in public (also known as the Roman Salute) was of major interest to the media across Europe as well as in Italy.
By a twist of fate, what the mainstream media has described as “eight Italian ‘neo-fascist militants” were going through the courts for making the ‘Roman salute’ during a commemorative rally in Milan in 2016. Not unlike the Via Larentia Massacre rally, the commemorative rally in Milan had been held to mark the killing of an Italian Nationalist in Milan in 1975.
The highest court in Italy, the cassation court ruled on January 18 2024 that the ‘Roman salute’ is not a crime unless “there is a concrete danger of the reconstruction of the Fascist party as provided by Article 5 of the Scelba Law, or there are concrete aims of racial discrimination or violence.”
As a result of the court ruling, not only will no legal action be taken against the activists of Casapound for the salutes at the rally on January 7th, but the eight defendants from the Milan trial have been referred to the court of appeal so that their arrests and convictions can be challenged.
Of course all of this has seriously agitated the political left, not only in Italy but across Europe, Britain and the USA. Mainstream media journalists, especially committed liberals and leftists are outraged. Left-wing Italian political activists, MP’s and MEP’s are howling at the Italian government to crack down on organisations like Casapound and there are calls for the Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni to ban “all neo-fascist” parties and organisations.
It is a matter of record that across the EU the political Left are opposed to Giorgia Meloni and her government led by the Brothers of Italy party, especially because of the government’s anti-immigrant rhetoric and anti-asylum-seeker policies. One particularly vocal Italian politician has called for the Italian government to return to the extreme left-wing policies of the immediate post-war years and to “make Italy an anti-fascist country again!” We kid you not!
Finally the media hysteria generated by the video footage of the Casapound rally in Rome on January 7th 2024 speaks volumes about the political attitudes of those liberal and left-wing journalists and of the politicians and political policy makers across the European Union, in the UK and the USA in their over the top outrage at what they saw and their fear of a genuine racial Nationalist revival in Italy and Europe.
Reproduced below are just some of those mainstream media outbursts.
“On a street in Rome, dozens of people – dressed in black, lined up in tight militia-like rows – raised their arms in a collective fascist salute, and shouted the same watchword in unison: “Present!” Images of this gesture, broadcast after a rally of neo-fascist activists was held in the Italian capital on Sunday, January 7, have been fueling controversy in the country, with opposition parties calling on Giorgia Meloni’s government to condemn the public use of a gesture, the Roman salute, which is a symbol of Benito Mussolini’s fascist dictatorship.”
Opposition politicians in Italy demanded that the government explain why the police did not stop the rally. Elly Schlein, a member of Italy’s Chamber of Deputies and secretary of the centre-left Democratic Party, wrote on Facebook: ‘Rome, January 7, 2024. And it feels like 1924.
‘Neo-fascist organisations should be dissolved, according to the Constitution.’
“Italy’s political landscape was shaken by a controversial display of fascist symbolism in Rome during a working-class rally, leading to public outcry and a subsequent debate. The Democratic Party, led by Elly Schlein, criticised the incident and sought an explanation. The opposition, demanding accountability, called for an explanation from Interior Minister Giorgia Meloni’s government. The government’s response to the rally raised concerns about its commitment to countering fascist symbols and ideologies. Leaders of Italy’s Jewish community expressed dismay, emphasising the sensitivity surrounding fascist symbols.”
“Italy’s high court has ruled that fascist salutes are legal at rallies unless they threaten public order or risk reviving the country’s outlawed fascist party. Several members of Italy’s opposition parties and Jewish community leaders have criticised the ruling and plan to rally against it, according to local media reports. The ruling comes nearly two weeks after a video showed more than 150 men performing the fascist salute – sometimes called the “Roman salute” – in central Rome to commemorate the January 7, 1978 killing of two members of a far-right youth group.”
So there it is, just a sample of the hysteria in the media generated by the highly visual demonstration of disciplined political activism.
British Movement salutes the dedication and example set by the activists of Casapound.
Footnote:
Giorgia Meloni, prime minister of Italy, grew up in Garbatella, a working-class southern neighbourhood of Rome and traditionally a bastion of the left. Aged 15, she joined Youth Front, the youth wing of the MSI, later becoming the president of the student branch of the movement’s successor, the National Alliance.
Resources:
Top Image: CasaPound led by leader Gianluca Lannone on the way to Acca Larentia
Lower Image: Street memorials to the fallen
Featured Videos: Youtube
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