Salò votes to revoke Mussolini's honorary citizenship

It is an appointment with history. To settle accounts with the past and turn the page. Salò revokes the honorary citizenship of Benito Mussolini, which dated 1924. The city council of the town overlooking the Lombardy shore of Lake Garda, capital of the Italian Social Republic during the final years of the Second World War, will express its opinion for the third time this evening. And unlike the two previous times, in which the motion did not pass, now there is something new: after twenty years of center-right administration, since last year the majority has been center-left and, therefore, has the numbers for the revocation. It was May 23, 1924, about twenty days before the Matteotti murder, when the prefectural commissioner Salvatore Punzo signed the awarding of honorary citizenship to the then head of government. The Duce also stayed here, in what is now a luxury hotel in nearby Gargnano, when Salò was also the seat of some ministries. "Our constitution is based on anti-fascist foundations and therefore I would say that the time has come to take this step" said the former Minister of Justice Marta Cartabia in recent days when on the other side of the province of Brescia, and precisely in Nave, in Valtrompia, she participated in another community moment: the recognition of honorary citizenship to Manlio Milani, husband of one of the eight victims of Piazza della Loggia and tireless president of the Casa della Memoria of Brescia. "We could have brought the case to the courtroom on April 25 but we brought forward the deadlines", explain the majority councilors who signed the motion. The mayor Francesco Cagnini, 29, brings it to the city council defying the opposition's attempts to extend the session and skip the agenda. In the town on Lake Garda where Fratelli d'Italia has named the local headquarters after Giorgio Almirante, the era of the Duce seems to be truly over this time. After a hundred long years. And after Salò, the citizenship issue could also open up in Brescia, where a motion signed by PD councilor Andrea Curcio requesting the revocation of honorary citizenship has been pending since October 28, and in many other municipalities throughout Italy that gave this recognition to Mussolini during the Twenty Years.