Anti-semitic sentiments are
incompatible with the ruling rightwing Brothers of Italy (FdI)
party, Premier Giorgia Meloni said Friday after two leading
members of FdI youth wing Gioventù Nazionale (National Youth,
GN) resigned Thursday amid a row over alleged anti-semitic
remarks against a Jewish FdI Senator and alleged threats against
centre-left opposition Democratic Party (PD) leader Elly
Schlein, who has Jewish roots.
"As I have already said many times, and I reiterate, I think
that anyone who has racist, anti-semitic or nostalgic sentiments
has simply got into the wrong house because these sentiments are
incompatible with Brothersof Italy," Meloni said after the EU
summit in Brussels.
However, she criticised the methods used by leftwing
investigative reporting group Fanpage, which got the undercover
scoop on alleged neo-Fascist, neo-Nazi and anti-semitic
sentiment voiced by some GN members.
"I take note that it is a new frontier of the political clash,"
Meloni said.
"From today it is possible to infiltrate political parties and
trade unions, film the meetings, and publish the footage.
"It's an instrument that can be used at 360 degrees.
"Infiltrating the meetings of political parties is a method that
smacks of a regime", said the rightwing premier, who has
repeatedly condemned Mussolini, Fascism and the "ignominious"
racial laws against the Jews.
The opposition immediately branded Meloni's own words against
Fanpage as "regime-like".
Two leading GN members resigned Thursday after being caught
making allegedly neo-Fascist and antisemitic remarks by the
Fanpage probe.
The first official, GN leader Flaminia Pace, allegedly made
antisemitic remarks about an FdI Senator and former spokeswoman
for the Rome Jewish community, Ester Mieli.
Pace was allegedly caught on a hidden camera phone saying "the
best thing was yesterday taking the mickey about the swastikas,
me who had issued the press statement of solidarity for Ester
Mieli".
Pace's resignation was announced by FdI House Whip Tommaso Foto
who said "in FdI, those who err, pay".
The second GN member, Elisa Segnini, secretary to FdI's leader
on the House budget committee, Ylenja Lucaselli, quit after the
probe recorded her saying she had "never stopped being racist
and Fascist".
The Fanpage probe, titled 'Melonian Youth', has roiled Meloni's
party just as the premier has been seeking to cement her
reputation for moderation on the EU stage, while asserting the
Right's right to count more in European appointments after it
made gains in the European elections this year.
Meloni has repeatedly praised GN in the past as model political
youngsters.
In the video, Segnini also allegedly blasted Ilaria Salis, an
Italian antifascist who was then on trial in Hungary for
allegedly attacking neo-Nazis and who has since been released
due to her newly acquired parliamentary immunity after becoming
an MEP for the Green/Left Alliance (AVS).
Segnini was recorded as saying ""I'll go to Budapest and tell
(Prime Minister Viktor) Orban that Ilaris Salis must rot in jail
with the mice and rats eating her feet".
Salis's contentious detention conditions sparked protests in
Italy, including from Meloni to her friend and ally Orban.
The latest Fanpage probe was the second part of an investigation
into National Youth, and again found members allegedly making
Fascist, antisemitic and neo-Nazi comments.
In the first part members were recorded hailing Mussolini and
far right terrorists and chanting Sieg Heil.
Senior party officials were also recorded attending the youth
rallies and allegedly gripping forearms in a 'gladiatorial'
alleged Fascist greeting.
The co-head of FdI's EU group, the European Conservatives and
Reformists (ECR), Nicola Procaccini, has said he will sue the
Socialists and Democrats (S&D) caucus leader Iratxe García Pérez
of Spain for saying he was caught making a Fascist salute in the
exposé.
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