Italy: Rome mayor says no to Museum of Fascism

Mayor of Rome says Italian capital is an "anti-Fascist city."

Rome mayor Virginia Raggi has ruled out categorically a proposal to create a museum dedicated to Fascism in the Italian capital, reports news agency ANSA.

The mayor blocked a motion proposing the creation of the Museum of Fascism put forward by a member of her own Movimento 5 Stelle (M5S), city councillor Gemma Guerrini.

"Rome is an anti-Fascist city," Raggi said. "There is no misunderstanding about that."

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Raggi intervened following an article published in Italian daily newspaper La Repubblica, which caused a storm of controversy and was criticised strongly by partisans association ANPI.

The article in La Repubblica quoted Guerrini as saying that the museum would be located in an "industrial archeology site" and that its purpose would be the "need to counteract denial and ignorance."

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The idea was also criticised by the centre-left Partito Democratico (PD) whose secretary for the Lazio region, Bruno Astorre, told ANSA: "It would be a slap in the face to a city that was awarded the gold medal of the resistance and to the many victims of the Fascist regime."

Cover image: Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana in EUR, an icon of Fascist architecture. Photo credit: ValerioMei / Shutterstock.com.