Senate Speaker Ignazio La Russa of
Premier Giorgia Meloni's Brothers of Italy (FdI) party fought
back on Saturday amid ongoing controversy after La Repubblica
newspaper on Friday quoted him as saying "the is no reference to
anti-Fascism in the Italian Constitution".
In a statement La Russa, who holds the second highest office of
State, decried the "falsehoods and insults" against him.
"I remain appalled by the twisting of the truth about my
exchange in the Senate cafeteria with two journalists from ANSA
and AGI (news agencies), who were joined by a journalist from
Repubblica (newspaper)," wrote the Senate Speaker.
"The two agencies immediately reported my words faithfully, and
these were, verbatim, 'the word antifascism is not in the
Constitution'. Furthermore, I added that I recognize myself in
the values of the Resistance. I therefore do not have to
rectify anything," he continued.
La Russa also said he was "collecting the conspicuously false
and offensive statements and comments" in order to evaluate
possible "appropriate action to protect my honourability".
La Russa's comments, which came ahead of National Liberation Day
on April 25, when Italy commemorates the liberation from Fascism
and Nazi occupation in 1945, sparked a barrage of criticism from
the centre-left opposition amid calls for him to resign.
Elly Schlein, the leader of opposition centre-left Democratic
Party (PD) was among the first to hit back.
"He said anti-Fascism isn't in the Constitution, we say that
anti-Fascism is our Constitution," Schlein told a party meeting
at Riano, near Rome.
The National Association of Italian Partisans (ANPI), former
Constitutional Court Presidents Giovanni Maria Flick and Gustavo
Zagrebelsky and numerous opposition politicians also voiced
their dissent.
This is not the first time that La Russa has faced calls to quit
from Italy's second-highest office of state after controversial
comments relating to Italy's Fascist past.
These include recent criticism of an anti-German Partisan attack
in Rome's Via Rasella during World War II that killed 33
soldiers and left 2 civilians dead.
The attack led to the 1944 Ardeatine Massacre in which 335
anti-Fascist prisoners and civilians were murdered by Nazi
soldiers as a reprisal.
Partisan Association ANPI blasted La Russa's comments as
"shameful" and PD lawmaker Marco Furfaro described them as "the
umpteenth attempt to rewrite history, with the despicable aim of
putting the Partisan resistance and the Nazis and Fascists on
the same level".
La Russa subsequently apologized for his remarks, saying he had
got his history wrong.
On April 25 the Senate Speaker will attend a ceremony at the
Altare della Patria (Altar of the Fatherland) monument in Rome
before going to a meeting of EU Parliament Speakers in Prague
and laying a wreath at the memorial to Prague Spring martyr Jan
Palach.
On Friday his agenda also reported he would be visiting the
Theresienstadt ghetto and concentration camp 30 miles north of
Prague.
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