The Supreme Court of Cassation established that the Roman salute constitutes an apology for fascism and, therefore, a crime, when there is a “concrete danger of reorganization of the dissolved fascist party”. Yesterday’s statement was highly anticipated in light of the controversy fueled by the left following the commemoration of the Youth Front activists who died 45 years ago in Acca Larentia. The Supreme Court ruled on another case, but at the same time very similar, that of eight people convicted on appeal (all acquitted in the first instance) for having given the fascist salute on the occasion of another commemoration, which took place on April 29 2016, in memory of Sergio Ramelli, Enrico Pedenovi and Carlo Borsani, killed respectively by exponents of the Vanguarda Operária in 1975, Prima Linea in 1976 and by the guerrillas in 1945.
The Court of Cassation overturned the appeal verdict and ordered a new trial. The president of the Senate, Ignazio La Russa, has been harshly attacked in recent days for saying that the Roman salute according to many sentences is not a crime, so it is useful for the Supreme Court to clarify. The decision lost yesterday by the Stoats is useful precisely for establishing fixed points in a tangle of interpretations. According to the judges, responding to the “present” appeal and making the “Roman salute” during a demonstration are “rituals evocative of the gestures of the dissolved fascist party” and “are part of the crime provided for” by the Scelba law, or the apology of fascism. But this is not enough: there must also be a “concrete danger” of the desire to reorganize the fascist party.” Which “obviously does not happen in a ceremony commemorating the present”, comments lawyer Domenico Di Tullio, defender of two of the defendants. Sources from the Senate Presidency recall that La Russa “awaited with interest to know the result of the imminent decision of the joint section of the Federal Supreme Court” because he believed that “clarity was needed”. That is why now “it is limited to making it known that the decision of the Supreme Court that annuls the sentence of the court of appeal and orders a new trial speaks for itself”.
Even so, the leader of the Green and Left Alliance group in the Chamber, Luana Zanella, returns to the controversy: «Senate President Ignazio La Russa would have commented with some disdain on the important decision of the united sections of the Federal Supreme Court in the Roman salute. Apparently he said “it speaks for itself”. He simply cannot assume the language and posture that his role demands.” Given that the second position in the state does not intend to fuel further dialectical confrontations, the president of the FdI deputies, Tommaso Foti, will respond: «The green left Zanella really does not understand that the decision of the joint sections of the Court of Cassation has rejected the Court’s conviction of Milan Appeal, based on the Mancino law, and decided in favor of acquittal in the first degree, which was based on the applicability of the Scelba law? For anyone who knows a little about the law, everything is clear. The phrase attributed, according to informed sources, to the President of the Senate La Russa, “the sentence speaks for itself”, far from being “contempt”, is, at the very least, respectful recognition”. When did the Scelba law apply the XII transitional provision of the Constitution on the crime of apologizing for fascism?
Source: IL Tempo
Emma Fitzgerald is an accomplished political journalist and author at The Nation View. With a background in political science and international relations, she has a deep understanding of the political landscape and the forces that shape it.
