"Executioner who gives up!".
The mayor of Rieti Antonio Cicchetti ends up in the storm for having pronounced the clearly fascist sentence during a rally.
However, he, 70 years old, for three non-consecutive terms as administrator of Rieti, of Forza Italia but with a past as a Missino , defends himself: "It is a motto, rooted in the history of Italy, not an indication of a crime". , he adds, "not to give up during the election campaign".
Saying it "in a speech in which you are urged not to give up for a moment from campaigning, represents the concise conclusion of a speech and is not an invitation to popular uprising or discrimination against anyone".
"I'm not even from Brothers of Italy, I'm from Forza Italia. I mentioned the young people of Reggio Calabria in the 70s", he says referring to the Reggio riots and to missino Ciccio Franco, exponent of the CISNAL union, who used the slogan in his press releases . Cicchetti, formerly the Youth Front, played in the MSI. He was elected mayor of Rieti in 1984, 1988 and, for the third time, in 2017.
"The human stupidity and the malevolence involved, associated with the lack of political and administrative arguments to contrast - continues Cicchetti - have created a non-existent and deplorable 'case' destined to determine a witch-hunt climate. It is useless, however, to invalidate the action of those who since 1975, with constant or growing popular consensus, participate in city and regional public life and have fostered tolerance and interreligious dialogue as administrator ".
"'Executioner who gives up' is not the battle cry, but the motto of an ideology defeated by history to be condemned without ambiguity or misunderstanding", is the attack by the president of the Jewish community of Rome Ruth Dureghello .
(Unioneonline / D)