It was January 7, 2024, yet, as Democratic Party Secretary Elly Schlein put it, "it felt like 1924." The celebrations in Via Acca Larentia, which are held every year in memory of the massacre of January 7, 1978, when three young militants of the Italian Social Movement were killed by an armed commando and a bullet fired by a policeman, this year more than ever have created controversy and outrage. This was due to far-right groups that gathered in the Tuscolano district in Rome to commemorate the victims of the massacre engaged in Roman salutes and calls of "Presente" - word referring to the Fascist ritual of the roll call whereby the living, on hearing the names of the dead, answer 'presente' - clearly nostalgic for fascism. Behaviors prohibited in Italy under the Law Against the Apology of Fascism, Number 645 of 1952, often known as the Scelba Law after the then-Minister of the Interior, Mario Scelba. President of the Lazio Region Francesco Rocca and Councillor for Culture of the Municipality of Rome Miguel Gotor participated in the commemorative ceremony yesterday. They laid laurel wreaths in the square where the plaque honoring the three militants is also situated, and emphasized the importance of remembering the fallen and rejecting political violence. Later, in a different location, in front of the former headquarters of the Italian Social Movement, several militants paid tribute to the victims with the "Presente" and the Roman salute, as recorded in various videos on the internet. Laura Boldrini, former President of the Chamber of Deputies and President of the Standing Committee of the Chamber of Deputies on Human Rights in the World, draws a parallel with what happened a few weeks ago at the premiere of La Scala: "A gentleman at the premiere of La Scala shouts 'Long live anti-fascist Italy', that is, the basic principle of our Constitution, and is immediately identified by the Digos as if he were a potential danger. Every year, hundreds of people congregate in Via Acca Larenzia to make a clear apologia for fascism with outstretched arms, so violating the Constitution, and no one intervenes, identifies, or prevents them. The world has turned upside down; this is the humiliation". However, also the institutional right distances itself from the event: Antonio Tajani, deputy prime minister and secretary of Forza Italia, emphasizes that "we are a force that is certainly not fascist, we are anti-fascists: those who have behaved in this manner must certainly be condemned by everyone. An apology for fascism in our nation is strictly prohibited by law, as stipulated by legislation".
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