ROME – Italy’s president, Sergio Mattarella, warned Italians that praising aspects of fascism will always be wrong, calling on those present “to work to prevent the past from returning” at a ceremony to mark the 80th anniversary of the promulgation of the racial laws on Thursday.

 Mattarella noted that the “racial laws indelibly stain our history”, adding that “the persecution of members of the Jewish faith was not a deviation but was inherent to the violent and intolerant nature of that system.”

 The racial laws were brought into effect under Italy’s fascist dictator, Benito Mussolini, from 1938 to 1943. They stripped Jews in the country of a whole swathe of human rights, including the right to public office and higher education, eventually paving the way for their deportation and internment at death camps across Europe.

 “Those laws were signed in Mussolini’s own hands,” Mattarella observed, “but they found complicity and justification with the state and society of the era: intellectuals, lawyers, scientists and historians signed the Manifesto of Race (1938) that gave the laws their theoretical support,” making reference to the infamous pamphlet that accompanied the laws.  

 Mattarella's condemnation was widely perceived as a rebuke of the Northern League, especially the comments in recent weeks by their candidate in Lombardy, Attilio Fontana, who argued that the “white race” was under threat from immigration in the country.

 The day of remembrance took place at the Quirinale, the official residence of the Italian President, and had added significance through the attendance of Italy’s new senator for life, Liliana Segre. Segre, 88, was one of only 25 Italian children to survive the Holocaust. She was confirmed as a senator last Friday.

tw