A march of “anti-fascist” protesters in Florence allegedly saw participants directly threaten Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and praise a communist massacre of Italian civilians during the Second World War.
The gathering of “anti-fascists” took place Tuesday evening following violence between a group of right-wing students from the group Azione Studentesca (Student Action) and others outside a local high school as the right-wing group was handing out leaflets.
The demonstration, organised by left-wing student groups, has claimed the attacks by Azione Studentesca members were pre-planned. However, during the event, some of the demonstrators could be heard threatening Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Il Giornale reports.
“Fascist Meloni you are the first on the list,” participants allegedly chanted and went on to celebrate the Foibe massacres that took place against Italian civilians by communist Josip Broz Tito, who later became the leader of Yugoslavia saying, “Long live the Foibe, comrade Tito taught us that.”
As many as 15,000 ethnic Italians were tortured or killed during the Foibe massacres in which victims were thrown into narrow gorges and pits known as Foibe in Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Istria and Dalmatia in modern-day Croatia.
Prime Minister Meloni spoke out on the Italian Day of Remembrance of the massacres earlier this month saying, “Today, Italy marks the Day of Remembrance and pays its tribute to the martyrs of the Foibe and to the Italians who were forced to abandon their homes just because they were Italian.”
“Hundreds of thousands of our compatriots who were forced to flee and whom the nation did not know how to welcome as it should have done,” she added.
The Day of Remembrance has only been acknowledged since 2004 as anti-fascist groups and activists had largely kept the extent of the massacres hidden from the public.
One Italian anti-fascist group, the ANPI, went as far as demanding a plaque to victims of the Foibe massacres be removed from a memorial garden in Turin, claiming the plaque was “abusive.”