Return of Italian fascism: Far-right make major gains in Rome in election warning
ITALY’S self-styled fascist party secured nine per cent of the vote in a council election and now has eyes set on next year’s national polls.
By SIMON OSBORNE
Express.co.uk
Mon, Nov 20, 2017
The surge in support for the far-right Casa Pound has raised a few eyebrows in the Roman seaside suburb of Ostia where its members are accused of beating up left-wing activists.
Around 400 plain-clothes police officers were on duty yesterday to ensure the local election passed peacefully after a series of violent incidents during the campaign.
Election officials drafted in army units to escort the ballot boxes back for the count.
Casa Pound, which wants to limit migration and introduce extensive public welfare programmes, failed to make the run-off but hopes to use its strong result from the first round as a platform for next year’s election.
It says it wants to achieve the ambitions France’s National Front failed to fulfil in elections earlier this year.
Nina Moric, 41, a former model and spokeswoman for Casa Pound, said: “We need to get to where Marine Le Pen didn’t manage to get to.
“We need to leave the euro, which is slowly killing Europe, not just Italy.
“Fascism in Italy left behind so many positive things, otherwise Mussolini would not still have so many admirers.”
The election was called after the local council was dissolved because of Mafia infiltration but some officials fear the crime families continue to wield power and influence.
Luca Marsella, the party’s local leader, is appealing against a conviction for physically assaulting students in Ostia in 2011. He denies wrongdoing.
The Spada clan is believed to have supported Casa Pound in the election and tensions were running high after Roberto Spada, brother of the jailed head of the crime family, headbutted a TV journalist this month.
On Thursday the tyres of a TV crew’s van were slashed, while on Friday the door of Italy’s ruling Democratic Party’s local office were torched.
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