Italy’s centre-left opposition on Friday condemned the Business and Made in Italy ministry’s decision to issue a postage stamp in honour of Italo Foschi, a Fascist thug leader who founded AS Roma.
A week ago, the PM praised Socialist MP Giacomo Matteotti. Fascist thugs murdered the politician in 1924 for speaking against the election of Benito Mussolini. Within days, her government is approving a stamp honouring a known thug, Italo Foschi.
Foschi was among the organisers of the attack on the house of the former Prime Minister Francesco Saverio Nitti and of various beatings of opposition leaders after the 1924 elections.
“This is offensive and shameful, a stain on our Republic, a stain for those, Jews and political opponents, who were persecuted by Foschi,” stated centre-left Democratic Party Senator Francesco Verducci, deputy chair of the upper house’s anti-discrimination panel.
Leftwing populist 5-Star Movement (M5S) Senator Sabrina Licheri, also a panel member, criticised the ministry’s decision as “disgraceful and indescribable”.
“Just a few days ago, Premier Meloni praised the figure of Matteotti and now, instead, on the part of her government, comes the umpteenth declaration of their fascist roots,” she said.
Meloni’s right-wing Brothers of Italy (FdI) party traces its roots to the neo-Fascist Italian Social Movement (MSI), founded by Mussolini loyalists at the end of World War Two. Business Minister Adolfo Urso is a prominent member of FdI. Meloni has repeatedly condemned Fascism, asserting that the Italian right has long rejected it.
Foschi, a leading Fascist gerarca (high-ranking official) and squadrista (political gang leader), founded AS Roma on June 7, 1927. The Giallorossi are one of Rome’s two teams, along with SS Lazio.
