Day: October 30, 2022

Several thousand black-clad fascist sympathizers chanted and sang in praise of the late Italian dictator Benito Mussolini on Sunday as they marched to his crypt, 100 years after Mussolini entered Rome and completed a bloodless coup that gave rise to two decades of fascist rule.

The crowd of 2,000 to 4,000 marchers, many sporting fascist symbols and singing hymns from Italy’s colonial era, was larger than in the recent past, as the fascist nostalgics celebrated the centenary of the March on Rome.

On October 28, 1922, black-shirted fascists entered the Italian capital, launching a putsch that culminated two days later when Italy’s king handed Mussolini the mandate to start a new government.

The crowd in Predappio, Mussolini’s birthplace and final resting place in the northern Emilia-Romagna region, also was apparently emboldened by the fact that a party with neo-fascist roots is heading an Italian government for the first time since World War II.

Organizers warned participants, who arrived from as far away as Rome, Belgium and the United States, not to flash the Roman salute used by the Fascists, or they would risk prosecution. Still, some couldn’t resist as the crowd stopped outside the cemetery where Mussolini is buried to listen to prayers and greetings from Mussolini’s great-granddaughter, Orsola.

“After 100 years, we are still here to pay homage to the man this state wanted, and who we will never stop admiring,” Orsola Mussolini said, to cheers.

She listed her great-grandfather’s accomplishments, citing an infrastructure boom that built schools, hospitals and public buildings, reclaimed malaria-infested swamps for cities, and the extension of a pension system to nongovernment workers. She was joined by her sister Vittoria, who led the crowd in a prayer.

The crowd gave a final shout of “Duce, Duce, Duce!” Mussolini’s honorific as Italy’s dictator.

Anti-fascist campaigners held a march in Predappio on Friday to mark the anniversary of the liberation of the town — and to prevent the fascists from marching on the exact anniversary of the March on Rome.

Inside the cemetery on Sunday, admirers lined up a handful at a time to enter his crypt, tucked away in a back corner. Each was given a memory card signed by his great-grandaughters with a photo of a smiling Mussolini holding his gloved hand high in a Roman salute. “History will prove me right,” the card reads.

Italy’s failure to fully come to terms with its fascist past has never been more stark than now, as Italy’s new premier, Giorgia Meloni, seeks to distance her far-right Brothers of Italy party from its neo-fascist roots.

This week, she decried fascism’s anti-democratic nature and called its racial laws, which sent thousands of Italian Jews to Nazi death camps, “a low point.” Historians would also add Mussolini’s alliance with Nazi Germany and Japan in World War II and his disastrous colonial campaign in Africa to fascism’s devastating legacies.

Now in power, Meloni is seeking a moderate course for a new center-right government that includes Matteo Salvini’s League party and Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia. But her victory gives far-right activists a sense of vindication.

“I would have voted for Lucifer if he could beat the left,” said organizer Mirko Santarelli, who heads the Ravenna chapter of the Arditi, an organization that began as a World War I veterans group and has evolved to include caretaking Mussolini’s memory. “I am happy there is a Meloni government, because there is nothing worse than the Italian left. It is not the government that reflects my ideas, but it is better than nothing.”

He said he would like to see the new Italian government do away with laws that prosecute incitement to hatred and violence motivated by race, ethnicity, religion and nationality. It includes use of emblems and symbols — many of which were present in Sunday’s march.

Santarelli said the law punishes “the crime of opinion.”

“It is used as castor oil by the left to make us keep quiet. When I am asked my opinion of Mussolini, and it is clear I speak well of him, I risk being denounced,” Santarelli said.

Lawyer Francesco Minutillo, a far-right activist who represents the organizers, said Italy’s high court established that manifestations are permissible as long as they are commemorative “and don’t meet the criteria that risks the reconstitution of the fascist party.”

Still, he said, magistrates in recent years have opened investigations into similar manifestations in Predappio and elsewhere to make sure they don’t violate the law. One such case was closed without charges last week.

To avoid having their message misrepresented, Santarelli asked the rank and file present not to speak to journalists. Most complied.

A young American man wearing a T-shirt with a hand-drawn swastika inside a heart and the words “Brand New Dream,” plus a fascist fez, said he had timed his European vacation to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the March on Rome so he could participate in the march in Predappio. He declined to identify himself, other than to say he was from New Jersey, and lamented there was no fascist group back home to join.

Rachele Massimi traveled with a group four hours from Rome on Sunday to participate in the event, bringing her 3-year-old who watched from a stroller.

“It’s historic,” Massimi said. “It’s a memory.”

Source: Voice of America

The European Union called on Russia to reverse its decision to pull out of the U.N.-led grain initiative and to allow the grain shipments to leave Ukraine’s Black Sea ports.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell tweeted on Sunday: “Russia’s decision to suspend participation in the Black Sea deal puts at risk the main export route of much needed grain and fertilizers to address the global food crisis caused by its war against Ukraine. The EU urges Russia to revert its decision.”

“Russia must go back to agreement to allow maritime corridor for food to reach the world. The EU will play its part to counter the global food crisis,” Borrell tweeted.

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) warned of catastrophic consequences of Russia suspending its participation in the U.N.-brokered grain deal. With the war in Ukraine altering the global patterns of food production and supply, inflation in low-income countries has surged to almost 90%. An estimated 345 million people will experience acute food insecurity this year, the agency said.

As tens of millions of people continue to experience extreme hunger in East Africa and Somalia teeters on the brink of famine as a result of the worst drought in 40 years, the renewed blockade will continue to impede the import of 80% of the grain imported from the Russia-Ukraine region, thereby driving further hunger, the IRC warned.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who is “deeply concerned” about the grain initiative, has delayed his trip to Algiers for the Arab League Summit by a day to “engage in intense contacts aiming at the end of the Russian suspension of its participation,” U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said in a statement on Sunday.

“The same engagement also aims at the renewal and full implementation of the initiative to facilitate exports of food and fertilizer from Ukraine, as well as removing the remaining obstacles to the exports of Russian food and fertilizer,” Dujarric said.

The Kremlin announced its action on Saturday, claiming that Ukraine staged a drone attack against Russia’s Black Sea Fleet off occupied Crimea. Ukraine has denied the allegation.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the Russia’s exit “predictable.” He accused Moscow of “blockading” ships carrying grain since September, The Associated Press reported. Currently, 218 vessels are blocked from leaving Ukrainian ports as Russia says it cannot guarantee their safety.

Zelenskyy called for a tough response against Russia from international bodies like the U.N. and the G-20 group of the world’s major economies.

Speaking to reporters in Delaware Sunday, U.S. President Joe Biden called Russia’s decision to suspend participation from the Ukrainian grain deal “purely outrageous” and said it would increase starvation.

“There’s no merit to what they’re doing. The U.N. negotiated that deal and that should be the end of it,” Biden said.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement, “In suspending this arrangement, Russia is again weaponizing food in the war it started, directly impacting low- and middle-income countries and global food prices and exacerbating already dire humanitarian crises and food insecurity.”

Blinken said the U.S. is urging “Russia to resume its participation in the Initiative, fully comply with the arrangement, and work to ensure that people around the world continue to be able to receive the benefits facilitated by the Initiative.”

On Sunday, the United Nations, Turkey and Ukraine agreed to a movement plan for 14 vessels that are in Turkish waters, the AP reported.

In a statement, the Joint Coordination Centre (JCC) in Istanbul, where Russian, Ukrainian and Turkish and U.N. personnel are working, said the three delegations had also agreed for inspections to be provided on Monday to 40 outbound vessels.

Wheat futures are expected to soar Monday as Russia’s withdrawal from the Black Sea corridor agreement puts Ukrainian exports at risk.

Wheat markets have been volatile due to developments in Moscow’s eight-month-old invasion of Ukraine, as both countries are among the world’s largest wheat exporters.

The Russian Defense Ministry blamed an alleged Ukrainian drone attack against ships of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet anchored off the coast of occupied Crimea for its exit from the agreement. Russia said the attack took place early Saturday; Ukraine has denied the attack.

“In connection with the actions of Ukrainian armed forces … the Russian side cannot guarantee the safety of civilian dry cargo ships participating in the Black Sea initiative and suspends its implementation from today for an indefinite period,” the Russian statement said.

The Russian declaration came one day after the U.N.’s Guterres urged Russia and Ukraine to renew the grain deal.

Dmitry Polyanskiy, Russia’s first deputy representative to the U.N., also said Saturday that Russia had requested a meeting Monday of the U.N. Security Council because of the alleged attack on the Black Sea Fleet and the security of the grain corridor.

Source: Voice of Ameica