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Dozens of people raise their arms to honour Italian dictator Benito Mussolini on the 79th anniversary of his execution.Credit:AP

Mussolini was stopped by anti-fascist partisans in Dongo,on the shores of Lake Como,on April 27,1945,as he tried to escape with his lover,Clara Petacci,following the Allied liberation of Italy.

On Sunday,a group of his supporters marched through Dongo and placed 15 roses in the lake in memory of the ministers and officials from the Mussolini government who were killed there,according to video of the event by LaPresse news agency.

The partisans executed Mussolini and Petacci the following day in the nearby lakeside town of Mezzegra-Giulino,where commemorations were also held. The leader of the commemorations shouted “Comrade Benito Mussolini”,and the crowd responded with a stiff-armed fascist salute and chant of “present”.

Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni arrives at the tomb of the unknown soldier for the solemn Liberation Day commemoration,in Rome.Credit:AP

Several police trucks separated the demonstrators in Dongo from hundreds of protesters who sang the famous partisan songBella Ciao during the ceremony.

The anniversary of Mussolini’s execution fell on the same day Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni was leading her far-right Brothers of Italy party in an election rally in the city of Pescara. Brothers of Italy traces its roots to the Italian Social Movement,which was founded in 1946 by a chief of staff in Mussolini’s last government and drew fascist sympathisers and officials into its ranks after his fall.

Meloni,who joined the MSI’s youth branch as a teenager,has tried to distance her party from its neo-fascist roots. She has condemned fascism’s suppression of democracy and insisted that the Italian right handed fascism over to history decades ago. On Sunday,she accused the left of being more of a totalitarian threat to the country today.

She noted that Communist Party members had made a formal complaint about the tent structures built on the Pescara beachfront to host the Brothers of Italy rally,during which Meloni announced she would head the party’s campaign ahead of European Parliament elections in June.

Italian Premier Benito Mussolini,right,and members of his staff review troops of the newly formed Fascist battalions on the outskirts of Rome,Italy on October 19,1941.Credit:AP Photo

“I note that the Communist Party still exists,and I say so to show where the nostalgics for totalitarianism are in Italy today,” she said.

The June European vote is a key test of strength for her 18-month-old rightist coalition.

“We want to do in Europe what we did in Italy... create a majority that brings together the centre-right forces and send the left into opposition,” Meloni told cheering party faithful in Pescara to set out EU policies and launch the campaign.

Meloni called for Italy to leave the eurozone when in opposition in 2022 and her election raised concerns in some European capitals.

However,she has followed a broadly pro-European,orthodox line in office,particularly on foreign policy matters such as Ukraine and the Middle East.

Her party is Italy’s most popular with 27 per cent of support,according to recent polls,ahead of the opposition Democratic Party (PD) on around 20 per cent and the left-leaning Five-Star Movement on 16 per cent.

Meloni will be the first name on the ballot for Brothers of Italy in all five of Italy’s constituencies for the election of members of the European Parliament,but pledged she would not use “a single minute” of her time as prime minister to campaign.

She earned rounds of applause as she listed her government’s accomplishments since coming to power in 2022,and drew cheers when she reaffirmed her working-class roots.

“If you still believe in me,just write ‘Giorgia’ on the ballot because I am and always will be one of you,” she said.

The message recalled one of her most famous campaign slogans,“I am Giorgia,” which emphasised her Christian nationalistic messaging and went onto become a viral meme and the title of her memoir.

AP,Reuters

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