The day of the anniversary of the Acca Larentia massacre, one of the most tragic pages of the years of lead in Rome, ended amid controversy and the announcement of the use of stamped papers. All thanks to the initiative of dozens of right-wing militants who, as per tradition, commemorated with fascist greetings and "present" the three militants of the Youth Front Franco Bigonzetti, Francesco Ciavatta and Stefano Recchioni, killed in Rome on 7 January 1978 in front of at the MSI headquarters.

A ceremony, the one with the Roman greetings, which took place after and in another place compared to the institutional one in which the President of the Lazio Region Francesco Rocca and the Councilor for Culture Miguel Gotor for the Capitol participated who laid two laurel wreaths, in the presence, among others, of the vice president of the Chamber Fabio Rampelli. The proximity of the two events, the first, the institutional one, in the square where there is the plaque of the three victims and the second in front of the former headquarters of the MSI, however triggered the controversy, with the Rome Democratic Party and Più Europa who urged President Rocca and Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni to distance themselves.

«Outstretched arms and Roman greetings at the commemoration of Acca Larentia in the presence of the president of the Lazio Region Rocca and the vice-president Angelilli. Commemorating the dead is one thing, giving institutional cover to fascist rallies is another", wrote Emanuela Droghei, regional councilor and coordinator of the Rome PD secretariat. «The institutional ceremony in which I took part, and in which the councilor of Rome Capital Miguel Gotor participated, was extremely composed and animated by the sole intention of remembering three victims of the Years of Lead – the clarification of President Rocca -. No Roman greeting in front of any institutional office, as Gotor himself can confirm. If there had been Roman greetings I would not have hesitated to stigmatize them and distance myself from them. Accusing the undersigned of giving institutional cover to fascist meetings is defamatory and Droghei will give an account of it in Court ."

«Rome, 7 January 2024. And it seems like 1924. We will present a question to Minister Piantedosi, what happened is not acceptable. Neo-fascist organizations must be dissolved, as the Constitution says", wrote the Democratic Party secretary, Elly Schlein, on social media. «Human pity for the dead is not in question, nor is the condemnation of the political violence of yesterday and today. All of it, without distinction. But the Roman salute, given on the occasion of the memory of Acca Larentia, is itself a symbol of death, violence and oppression. For this he should be condemned first and foremost by the political forces. All. Anyone who doesn't do it is an accomplice", the words of the former secretary of the Democratic Party Nicola Zingaretti.

For Action leader Carlo Calenda it is "an unacceptable shame in a European democracy".

(Unioneonline/D)

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