El Alamein praise in Italy ignites fascism row
The Italian government has been criticised after praising fascist soldiers who fought in El Alamein on the anniversary of the battle. In a social media post, it praised those who “sacrificed their lives for our freedom” and called the Italian and Nazi loss to the allies in North Africa as being “heroic and tragic.”
Opposition parties condemned the comments with the Five Star Movement party calling it “inopportune” to say that Italian soldiers at El Alamein had fought for freedom.
The row comes in spite of Prime Minster Giorgia Meloni making moved to distance her right-wing ruling party, Brothers of Italy (FDL) from the country’s fascist history. FDL is a direct descendant of Italy’s Social Movement, founded by members of Benito Mussolini’s fascist party after World War Two.
Meloni had hoped to distance the party’s modern incarnation from its roots. It does not tolerate racism, antisemitism, or nostalgia for the Mussolini era, she previously said. Under Mussolini’s fascist regime, Italy allied itself with Nazi Germany, fighting alongside Hitler’s army in the Second World War including in its North African campaign.
The second battle of El Alamein began on 23rd October, 1942. It is considered the first major Allied victory in the war and a key turning point. “Before Alamein,” Winston Churchill once said, “we never had a victory. After Alamein we never had a defeat”
Thousands of Italian soldiers were either captured or killed as the loss denied the Axis nations any military dominance over North Africa.
Paola Chiesa, an FDL politician, said the “heart of the nation” was at El Alamein on the anniversary of the start of the battle. But the Five Star Movement hit back at the government’s claim that Italian troops had fought for freedom, calling them “victims of [the] colonial and fascist regime,” Reuters reported.
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