Cblue eyes and black shirts. Under an almost summer heat, more than two thousand nostalgics of Benito Mussolini found themselves in the birthplace of the Duce, in Emilia-Romagna. An impressive procession, dressed all in black, came from all over Italy to commemorate the centenary of the March on Rome, the first chapter of the fascist leader’s double decade in power. “It’s the strong man who made Italy pass from the marsh stage to that of European power”, celebrates at the microphone of the journalists Mirco Santarelli, president of the association of Arditi and co-organizer of the event.
While on Friday the banners of Anpi, the association of Italian partisans, floated in the town center of Predappio to celebrate the 78e anniversary of the liberation of the city, this Sunday, it is the look full of defiance that we exhibit in the streets of the city flags, T-shirts and tattoos bearing the effigy of the dictator. “It’s normal, he was a great statesman. Of course, there were mistakes that precipitated his downfall, such as racial laws, but I think that here in Italy we should also learn to appreciate everything he has done for the country, ”hopes thus a young thirty-year-old, all smiles.
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A glorified legacy that Orsola Mussolini will not fail to remind the crowd massed in front of the entrance to the San Cassiano cemetery, where the body of his great-grandfather rests in the family crypt. Jumbled up, it celebrates the schools, the health services, the reclamation of agricultural land, the legacies of a leader “for whom we will never lack admiration”. At the end of the commemorations, tradition obliges, the name of “comrade Benito Mussolini” is called. “Present”, shouts the assembly from which arise Roman salutes in abundance.
This Sunday, many participants did not escape questions from journalists on the arrival of the radical right at the head of the new executive. “Always better than the left”, we recognize, relieved. But without depriving herself of openly criticizing the “Europeanism” and “Atlanticism” of a President of the Council in a permanent quest for “normalization”, in Italy and internationally. “Instead of marching on Rome, Giorgia Meloni is marching on Brussels”, whistles a member of the Nationalists (ex-Oeuvre française) came with a handful of compatriots to pay homage to “the original fascist”.
The “black shirts” version 2022 do not spare the taking of distance with the Twenty years Mussolinian of the leader of the Brothers of Italy (FDI), distant heirs of the Italian Social Movement (neo-fascist party founded in 1946 by former faithful of the fallen dictator). “When I think that some accuse Meloni of being a fascist, it makes me laugh,” plagues a nostalgic Roman. “I am a real fascist, a patriot, a nationalist,” he adds, assuring him never to miss a commemorative appointment.
Mussolinian pilgrims
In Predappio, the day after the electoral triumph of the Brothers of Italy (who won more than 36% of the vote here, nine times more than in 2018), the party was clear: “It’s an incredible result, but this cannot become a springboard for more celebrations on the occasion of the centenary. The party shares nothing with fascism,” warned Lucio Moretti, majority leader on the city council. Moreover, the elected official does not hide his embarrassment on the eve of the commemorations: “I never liked this procession, this tribute to a dictator. This seems stupid and anachronistic to me. I didn’t usually go there. So you think this year! »
The warning is valid for the nostalgic, but also for the press, accused of bringing shame on the choice of the voters of the birthplace of the Italian dictator (until 2019 led by the left). “Today, we cannot say that four Predappiesi out of ten are fascists because they voted for Fratelli d’Italia. The reasoning does not hold. The term is just used to discredit a party,” laments the FDI insert. After a decade on the opposition benches in parliament, the efforts of Meloni and his family are finally paying off. The party is gaining ground in all territories, considers Lucio Moretti, also recalling the excellent results in Sesto San Giovanni (the “Stalingrad of Italy”, in the suburbs of Milan) or in Stazzema, a city martyred by Nazi barbarism. “There too, are they all fascists? “, he asks.
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As for the inhabitants, even the resounding parade of admirers of the Duce this Sunday will not have been able to upset for a single moment the tranquility of a city which, from the 1920s, already welcomed its first Mussolinian pilgrims. “We are used to it”, confides a retiree and recalls: “In addition to the march on Rome, there are also the anniversaries of the death and birth of Mussolini. “A memorial calendar that does not only have flaws, we are assured. “Here, we don’t have much to run the economy: no big companies or big tourist sites, except Mussolini. So even if I don’t share their ideas, as long as they respect public order and it helps local business, it suits us, ”admits a young resident, pointing to the terraces of bars and restaurants taken by storm. by day visitors.
Not to mention the “souvenir” shops, Ali Baba’s caves for aficionados of the dictator. A nostalgia for the child of the country to which the city adapts, willy-nilly, notes the municipal councilor Lucio Moretti: “That does not make her proud but does not prevent her from sleeping either. Like someone who lives near the Place de la Bastille in Paris: he doesn’t think of the guillotined king before going to bed. »