The images of hundreds of nostalgic people doing the Roman salute in unison to the cry of “present” on January 7 in front of the former headquarters of the post-fascist Italian Social Movement (MSI) party resonated strongly in front of the Italian Supreme Court yesterday. The Court of Cassation met to express its opinion on another similar case, that of eight far-right militants who made the fascist salute during a commemoration in Milan in 2016, a hearing followed with particular interest in the country given the proximity of the event in Rome, for which the Prosecutor’s Office has opened an investigation against ten of the participants. It was important, because it could set a precedent.
What the Supreme Court decided yesterday was which of the two laws of the Italian legal system that prohibit and punish the apology of fascism should be applied to those nostalgic for Milan. The first was approved in 1952, when the memory of Benito Mussolini was still very much alive. It is known as the Scelba law, by the then Minister of the Interior, Mario Scelba, and sanctions the individual or collective apology of fascism to avoid the danger of reorganizing the dissolved Fascist Party. Then, in 1993, under the government of the socialist Giuliano Amato, the second law was passed, the Mancino law, which goes further and includes penalties for incitement to discrimination or violence for “ideas based on racial superiority or hatred and ethnic”. The Milà defendants were convicted under this 1993 law, after being acquitted in the first degree in accordance with the Scelba law, and he had been called upon to decide which of the two rules was appropriate.
In the end, and after a specific section was assembled that allows precedents to be created – therefore, the decision could affect those investigated in Rome -, the Court decided that for those involved in the Roman Milanese greeting, the Scelba law had to govern, that is to to say, that for it to be considered a crime, the Roman salute must be accompanied by circumstances that imply a danger of reorganization of the Fascist Party, and it will be the judge who establishes if it exists. But it is something difficult to prove and to prosecute, so the defendants could claim that it was done with a commemorative function. The neo-fascist group CasaPound instantly exulted with talk of “victory”.
However, the judges also spoke of analyzing case by case, and added that “under certain conditions” the crime provided for by the Mancino law can also be applied, which prohibits demonstrations by groups that incite discrimination or violence on racial or ethnic grounds. In other words, this Supreme Court ruling does not completely resolve a debate that has been open in the country for decades. For now, it is most likely that the nostalgic will return to the old MSI headquarters on January 7.
