The granddaughter of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, who until now was active in the far-right Brothers of Italy (Fd, for its acronym in Italian), Rachele, has left the party of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni to join the conservative Forza Italia (FI), more in line with her “moderate and centrist sensibility”.
The city councilor who obtained the most votes in the Rome City Council with the FdI believes that Meloni’s party has too extreme positions, especially on civil rights, and she feels more comfortable in the party founded by Silvio Berlusconi and now led by the vice-president of the Executive and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Antonio Tajani, as revealed this Thursday by the newspaper The Republic.
“I thank the FdI for believing in me and supporting me in two candidacies, the affection and esteem remain, but for me the time has come to turn the page and join a party that I feel is closer to my moderate and centrist sensibility.” Mussolini briefly told the Ansa agency after learning of his decision.
The dictator’s granddaughter, twice elected councilor in the municipal elections in Rome, the last of which was the most voted for, maintains disagreements with Meloni’s ultras, as happened last August with the controversy surrounding the intersexual nature of the Algerian boxer Imane Khelif and which he described as “a denigrating campaign”, according to The Republic.
Khleif won gold at the Paris Games and, after her Italian rival Angela Carini withdrew, Meloni said the matchup was not a level playing field.
Rachele, daughter of Romano, the dictator’s fourth son, and half-sister of former MEP Alessandra, had also opposed in the past the retention of the tricolour flame, one of the emblems of the Italian Social Movement, heir to her grandfather’s fascist party, and symbol of FdI.
Last June, there was talk of his candidacy for the European elections, which ultimately did not come to fruition due to his own decision. Then he assured in the Corriere della Sera that, even though she was proud of her surname because of her father, a prominent jazz musician, “they would only talk about my name and say: ‘Meloni is presenting the Duce’s granddaughter as a candidate’.”
