Meloni condemns political hatred after party activists attacked in Italy

ROME, Jan 7 (Reuters) – Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Wednesday urged Italians to reject political violence after four activists from her party’s youth wing were beaten up on the 48th anniversary of the killings of three neofascist militants in Rome.

Witnesses said the four activists were attacked as they were putting up posters to commemorate the deaths on January 7, 1978 of the three teenagers in Via Acca Larentia — a long-standing rallying point for Italy’s far-right.

In a statement, Meloni called the 1978 deaths “a painful page in the history of our nation”, adding: “Those were dark years of terrorism and political hatred, in which too much innocent blood was shed, from multiple sides.”

The three slain teenagers were members of the youth wing of the now defunct Italian Social Movement (MSI), a neofascist party founded after World War Two. Two of the teens were allegedly killed by leftwing militants, while the third was shot dead later the same day by a policeman after a riot broke out.

No one was convicted of the killings.

“We have the duty to preserve memory and to clearly reaffirm that political violence, in all its forms, is always a defeat. It is never justifiable. It must never return,” Meloni said.

The four activists attacked on Wednesday were members of Gioventu Nazionale (National Youth), the youth wing of Brothers of Italy. None of them were believed to have been seriously hurt but their car had its windscreen smashed in.

Meloni said Italy had “to choose respect, dialogue, and civil coexistence”, adding: “When an idea is silenced by force, democracy loses. Always.”

The Via Acca Larentia commemoration has traditionally been marked by hundreds of men making the stiff-armed Roman salute and shouting “present” — a rallying cry of neofascists.

Meloni’s own Brothers of Italy party traces its roots back to the MSI, however the prime minister has denied accusations that her party has close ties with the far right, saying in 2023 that her government had no “nostalgia for fascism”.

A year later she said anyone who idolised Italy’s fascist past should be expelled from the Brothers of Italy after an undercover media investigation released a video of party members making fascist salutes and chanting “Sieg Heil”.

(Reporting by Crispian BalmerEditing by Keith Weir)