First movements in the ranks of Italian politics. The council’s new president, Giorgia Meloni, on Monday appointed a far-right MP to government who was photographed wearing a Nazi armband in 2005, leading to a condemnation by the opposition on Tuesday (November 1).
Galeazzo Bignami, elected to the Chamber of Deputies in September 2022 on the list of the Fratelli d’Italia, the Prime Minister’s post-fascist party, has been appointed Minister of Delegates for Infrastructure. The 47-year-old lawyer was photographed at a party in 2005 in a black outfit and with a swastika armband on his left arm.
His appointment was “an offence, an indecency towards the constitution, memory, history and the victims [croix gammée] ‘, emblem of the Nazis, responded on twitter Democratic Party MP Marco Furfaro. “Shame on you Giorgia Meloni,” he added.
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Other appointments criticized by the opposition
In a press release, the interested party condemned “every form of totalitarianism, libertarian and anti-democratic statements” and described National Socialism as “absolutely evil”. The 2005 photo was taken “in a private context” and “I’ve apologized for it more than once,” he said.
Other deputy ministerial appointments announced on Monday have drawn criticism from the left-wing opposition. Claudio Durigon of the Ministry of Labor had proposed in 2021 that a park south of Rome bearing the name of assassinated anti-mafia judges Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino be renamed to give it the name of Arnaldo Mussolini, the dictator’s brother. The controversy had forced him to resign.
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