- Title: Fascist salutes mark centenary of Mussolini’s march on Rome
- Date: 30th October 2022
- Summary: PREDAPPIO, ITALY (OCTOBER 30, 2022) (REUTERS) PEOPLE HOLDING ITALIAN FLAG / PEOPLE PERFORMING FASCIST SALUTE SAYING (Italian) ''COMRADE BENITO MUSSOLINI, PRESENT'' MAN WEARING BLACK T-SHIRT READING (Italian) "PATRIOT" / PEOPLE WALKING PEOPLE HOLDING BLACK BANNERS WITH FASCIST EAGLE SYMBOLS VARIOUS OF PEOPLE CARRYING GIANT ITALIAN FLAG RALLY IN PROGRESS PEOPLE HOLDING ITALIAN FLAG (SOUNDBITE) (Italian) FORLI RESIDENT, FRANCESCO MINUTILLO, SAYING: ''It is a moment in which so many people, each with their own reasons, decided to meet in Predappio to commemorate a man who died 80 years ago and who gave life to an experience that profoundly changed Italy for 20 years." (SOUNDBITE) (Italian) 58-YEARS-OLD BERGAMO RESIDENT, SUSANNA CORTINOVIS, SAYING: ''Today is the centenary of the March on Rome, and it is as important as all the other anniversaries of the March on Rome. We remember the important step that the Duce had taken." VARIOUS OF PEOPLE CARRYING WREATHS AND BLACK BANNERS PEOPLE HOLDING ITALIAN FLAG / MAN MAKING FASCIST SALUTE VARIOUS OF PEOPLE IN FRONT OF PREDAPPIO CEMETERY WHERE MUSSOLINI'S MAUSOLEUM IS LOCATED PEOPLE ENTERING CEMETERY PEOPLE WEARING BLACK T-SHIRTS WITH EAGLE SYMBOL WOMAN WEARING RING WITH LATIN WORD ''DUX'' VARIOUS OF PEOPLE HOLDING BANNER READING (Italian) ''100TH ANNIVERSARY MARCH ON ROME 1922-2022''
- Embargoed: 13th November 2022 13:29
- Keywords: Brothers of Italy Fascism Giorgia Meloni Italy Predappio commemoration march on Rome
- Location: PREDAPPIO, ITALY
- City: PREDAPPIO, ITALY
- Country: Italy
- Topics: Europe,Government/Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA001492026102022RP1
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Thousands of neo-fascists marked the centenary of Hitler ally Benito Mussolini's March on Rome on in the Italian town of Predappio on Sunday (October 30).
The town is the former dictator's home and burial place.
On Oct. 28, 1922 Mussolini's blackshirt supporters' marched on Rome to seize power.
On Sunday, dressed in black shirts, pins with the fascist symbols of the eagle and the Celtic cross, and carrying banners from the 20-year fascist period, nostalgic supporters of the dictatorship marched from Predappio's main square to Mussolini's grave.
''Today is the centenary of the March on Rome, and it is as important as all the other anniversaries of the March on Rome. We remember the important step that the Duce had taken'', 58-years-old Bergamo resident, Susanna Cortinovis, said.
''It is a moment in which so many people, each with their own reasons, decided to meet in Predappio to commemorate a man (Benito Mussolini) who died 80 years ago and who gave life to an experience that profoundly changed Italy for 20 years", Forli' resident, Francesco Minutillo, said.
The dictator was killed by partisans in April 1945 as he was fleeing to Switzerland after the liberation of Italy by the Allies. His birth and death are marked annually by neo-fascists in the town.
This year the anniversary has coincided with the swearing-in of Italy's most right-wing administration since World War Two, led by Giorgia Meloni, whose own party, the Brothers of Italy, has post-fascist roots.
Meloni praised Mussolini in her youth but has since changed her stance, telling parliament that she had "never felt any sympathy for fascism" and denouncing the racist, anti-Jewish laws of 1938 as "the lowest point of Italian history."
While Germany systematically scrubbed clean any symbols of Adolf Hitler's Nazi regime after World War Two, Italians took a much less rigorous approach to remove traces of their dictator's 21-year rule.
(Production: Alex Fraser, Oriana Boselli) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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