ZAGREB, March 14, 2019 – Demanding his resignation, Croatian MEPs from the ranks of the Social Democrats, the Liberals and the Greens expressed their outrage at the statements made by European Parliament President Antonio Tajani about Mussolini’s fascist regime.
In comments to Italian radio on Wednesday, Tajani said the Italian dictator did some “positive things to realise infrastructures in our country”.
In an interview with Radio24 Tajani said that “before the war, Mussolini did positive things. Until the war and the alliance with Hitler, until the race laws, apart from the dramatic assassination of Giacomo Matteotti, Mussolini did good things, like the infrastructure. You have to be honest.”
Tajani, an Italian centre-right MEP who has led the EP since 2017, then apologised for comments praising Benito Mussolini after coming under fire from MEPs who demanded he retract the comments or resign.
He issued an apology “to all those who may have been offended by what I said, which in no way intends to justify or play down an anti-democratic and totalitarian regime”.
“I have always been wholeheartedly anti-fascist. I have always stressed that Mussolini and fascism were the darkest chapter in the history of the past century, without any distinction,” said Tajani.
MEPs lined up to condemn Tajani.
Croatian MEP Tonino Picula of the Social Democratic Party recalled Tajani’s recent revisionist statements about “Italian Istria and Dalmatia,” once again calling for Tajani’s resignation.
Jozo Radoš of the GLAS/ALDE group, Ivan Jakovčić of the IDS/ ALDE group, and Davor Skrlec of the Green Party joined in condemning Tajani’s statement saying that someone who represents the main democratic institution in the EU cannot resort to the same old slogans that fascists and the extreme right have being using since the end of the war to justify the Mussolini regime.
The Mussolini remarks are the second time in as many months that prompted calls for Tajani to resign. Last month he sparked outrage in Slovenia and Croatia after he referred to the regions of Istria and Dalmatia as Italian territory. Mr. Tajani later apologised for the comments, saying they had been misinterpreted.
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