The city council of Salò, which was the capital of the Italian Social Republic in the final years of the Second World War, has revoked the honorary citizenship of Benito Mussolini. The motion, presented by Tiberio Evoli (councilor of the centre-left majority, who voted unanimously) saw 12 votes in favour. Then 3 councillors were against and one abstention, all belonging to civic lists, one of which was close to Fratelli d'Italia.

Honorary citizenship had been conferred to the Duce in May 1924 by the prefectural commissioner Salvatore Punzo. "The ideas represented by honorary citizenship to Mussolini no longer have space in today's Italy and Salò," says Francesco Cagnini, twenty-nine-year-old mayor of Salò, in announcing the revocation . "This is an initiative carried forward by an administration led by a mayor born 50 years after the liberation of 1945, who therefore cannot in any way see this passage as an ideological opposition, but rather as a unifying moment, which reaffirms the values of love for freedom and democracy, the true cornerstones of our Constitutional Charter."

The announcement of the motion's approval was greeted with applause, but also with some boos. "With the revocation we reaffirm the constitutional principles and values that should be shared by everyone," continued Mayor Cagnini, "reaffirmed several times, including recently by the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, and which are highly "civic", that is, the heritage of all. In light of the constitutional and democratic values that, as administrators, we are called to represent, Benito Mussolini does not deserve any honor from the Municipality of Salò. The revocation is a step that does not deserve further words, justifications or even judgments. It simply and evidently had to be done ."

(Online Union)

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