Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has condemned the racist rhetoric and authoritarian apologetics from members of the youth wing in her Brothers of Italy party as captured by an undercover journalist.
“I have said and repeated dozens of times, but perhaps I need to repeat it: There is no space in Brothers of Italy for racist or antisemitic positions,” Meloni wrote in a letter on July 2. “There is no space for nostalgics of totalitarianism of the 1900s or for any other show of stupid folklore.”
The videos showed members of the youth organization—two who have since resigned—performing Nazi “Sieg Heil” salutes and promoting Benito Mussolini, Italy’s fascist prime minister who led the country from 1922 until 1943 and joined with Adolf Hitler as part of the Axis forces during World War II.
Mussolini was executed on April 28, 1945. The Italian Social Movement emerged in 1946, founded by former fascist officials, and evolved into Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party she founded in 2012.
