There has been an uproar in Italy after the Ministry of Defense of the far-right Meloni government said that the defeated fascist soldiers of the dictator Benito Mussolini had died for the country’s freedom.
“We honor the brave Italian soldiers who fought on the sands of North Africa. Together with them we respectfully remember all the fallen soldiers who sacrificed their lives for our freedom”, the Ministry of Defense said in a post on X on Wednesday 10/23, on the occasion of the 82nd anniversary of the defeat of the Italian fascists in the second battle of El Alamein during World War II.
As Politico reports, that 1942 battle, in which the Axis armies of Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany suffered a heavy defeat, is considered an important step towards the Allies’ victory in the war, as it prevented further enemy advance into North Africa and the middle east.
The post drew immediate criticism from academics and opposition parties on social media. Specifically, the left-populist 5 Star Movement party of former Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte issued a statement criticizing the Ministry of Defense’s depiction of the fallen soldiers as freedom fighters.
“The Ministry of Defense celebrates the fallen of El Alamein on X by talking of bravery, sacrifice, heroism and courage – all true – but unfairly contrasts their memory with that of those who died fighting for freedom, to say the least. The memory of these 17,000 fallen Italians must be honored, of course, but as victims of the war and colonialist adventurism of the fascist regime,” the announcement reads.
Mario Makis, a professor of economics at John Hopkins University, said that the Italians during the battle fought “to suppress the freedom of others”. “There is nothing to be proud of, only cause for shame and the need to apologize,” he wrote in a post on X.
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