ROME (JTA) — Italy’s right wing — including black-shirted neo-fascists — turned out in Rome last weekend for the funeral of Vittorio Mussolini, the second child of Italy’s fascist dictator Benito Mussolini.
Vittorio Mussolini, who was 80, died June 12 in a Rome clinic of kidney failure.
About 60 extremists, dressed in black shirts that recalled the fascist garb of a half-century ago, gave the stiff-armed salute as Mussolini’s coffin was carried from a Rome church after the funeral service.
They waved a fascist-era flag, and a wreath bore the image of Benito Mussolini.
The service was attended by family members, including Vittorio Mussolini’s niece, Parliament member Alessandra Mussolini, as well as other right-wing politicians.
Vittorio Mussolini was a dedicated fascist, but he also had a career in the film business.
He emigrated to South America after World War II, but returned to Italy in the 1960s. He produced a documentary about his father in 1983.
Protests don’t stop `Il Duce’ opening
ROME (JTA)– Organizers of an exhibit on Italy’s fascist dictator Benito Mussolini plan to go ahead with the show despite a flood of protests against it, according to Italian news reports.
The show, “Man of Providence: Iconography of the Duce, 1923-1945” is due to open July 13 in the small Tuscan town of Seravezza.
The daily Corriere della Sera newspaper reported that left-wing political parties, former anti-fascist resistance fighters and schoolteachers had mounted a campaign against the exhibit, which includes propagandistic pieces from the fascist era that idealize Mussolini.
“Such an exhibition is inappropriate and in very bad taste,” one schoolteacher wrote in a letter to the local mayor.