Ex-Fascist Still Fascist!

In other news, the gargantuan mayor of Rome (pictured left), Gianni Alemanno, has caused some political fracas with his comments concerning fascism, an ideology he once espoused as a member of the MSI, a neo-fascist group formed in the ashes of post-war Italy. In an interview with Italian broadsheet Corriere Della Sera, Alemanno stated that he didn't think fascism itself was 'pure evil', but that the racist and anti-semitic policies brought in under Italian fascism were.

The most interesting thing about this story is the amount of coverage it actually got outside of Italy. It demonstrates the utter ignorance the rest of the world has regarding the way politics is run on the peninsula. Italy is a country whose political system encompasses proud neo-fascists on the one hand and staunch communist doctrinaires on the other. It is a country where an ex-porn star running for office ironically has a cleaner record than most other politicians (in terms of both policy and sexual deviance), and where our Foreign Minister wore a t-shirt printed with the controversial Danish Muhammad cartoons in the midst of the scandal. In other words, it is not a country in which imprudent, lewd, or offensive comments are news. Unless directed at over-sensitive German socialists.

The comments did not cause an uproar. A Reuters news article amusingly refers to 'Italy's Left' creating an outcry, by which they really meant an impressively bearded Communist professor and a few students starstruck by the size of his beard. Of course, the gigantic mayor Alemanno has little to fear from such voices on the margins.