Salvini’s homage to Mussolini draws fire

MATTEO SALVINI, Italy’s hard-line interior minister, has come under fire for using a phrase made popular by Benito Mussolini during the Fascist era.

Responding to criticism that he was fomenting xenophobia and racism with his anti-immigrant rhetoric, Mr Salvini wrote on Twitter: “Many enemies, much honour.”

The words he used – “tanti nemici, tanto onore” – were almost identical to Mussolini’s “molti nemici, molto onore”, a motto that can still be seen in a marble mosaic in a Fascist-era sports complex in Rome, the Foro Italico.

The fact that the minister cited the phrase on Sunday, the anniversary of Mussolini’s birth, made it all the more inflammatory. Critics accused Mr Salvini, leader of the hard-right League party and its most prominent member, of flirting with the ghosts of Fascism.

“Mussolini destroyed and humiliated Italy, with a dramatic price paid in blood. If this is his aim, then the real enemies of Salvini are the Italians,” said Nicola Zingaretti, a senior figure in the centre-left Democratic Party. Matteo Orfini, an opposition MP, said: “Salvini should apologise or resign and play the little fascist far from government.”

Mr Salvini, who shares the role of deputy prime minister with Luigi Di Maio, his coalition partner, made the remark during a visit to a beach north of Rimini on the east coast, where he mingled with sunbathers and posed bare-chested – behaviour that has also been likened to Mussolini’s, who liked to be filmed or photographed while swimming in the sea to promote his strongman image.

Mr Salvini’s campaign against the NGO vessels which rescue migrants in the Mediterranean, has proved popular with many Italians, almost doubling the League’s support from the 17 per cent of votes it won in the March general election to more than 30 per cent, according to polls.