He raised his right arm towards the president of the city council, during the voting phase, rigidly in a pose that to some seemed at least ambiguous and to others unequivocally fascist.

Under accusation, in Alghero, the Lega councilor Michele Pais, former president of the regional council, who during the civic assembly convened at the theater expressed his vote with an outstretched arm, similar to a "Roman salute".

It was the local organizations of Sinistra XXI and Europa a Sinistra that raised the controversy after seeing the video on social media in which Pais holds out his right arm during the voting phase. «An unequivocal fascist posture», underlined the two political organizations, also taking it out on the president of the municipal council, Mimmo Pirisi, who would have done nothing to stigmatize Pais's gesture.

«We all saw that raised arm, me, the mayor, the secretary, the minute taker and all the councillors. Nobody, I underline, nobody, me first, understood that raise of hands, as if it could be considered a gesture of a "Roman salute", explains Pirisi, convinced that the accusations represent "an ignominious and slurring of the entire city council" .

Michele Pais, for his part, believes he was «dragged into a violent, senseless, specious controversy and the result of fanatical lucubrations of those moved only by social and personal hatred. Instead of this nonsense, I expect the same associations to show the same diligence in reporting the city's problems and the inconveniences experienced daily by citizens who expect concrete actions from politics and not just useless chatter and controversy like this. I close with a bit of common sense: when you vote by show of hands, you have to raise your hand", concludes Pais.

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