The Bologna chapter of Brothers of Italy’s youth organization, National Youth (Gioventù Nazionale), organized a demonstration on February 9, ahead of foibe Remembrance Day—a controversial memorial day used by the far-right to whitewash Italy’s fascist era and its own ties to the Fascist Party. During their demonstration, members of the National Youth forced their way into Bologna city hall. Bologna’s mayor, Matteo Lepore, of the social democratic Democratic Party, called the action “unacceptable” and told press he believed the group was aided by local representatives of Brothers of Italy, announcing further action in response.
In addition to storming Bologna city hall, members of the organization held up banners claiming Italian ownership over the territories of Istria, Rijeka, and Dalmatia, which were officially reclaimed by Yugoslavia after World War II following a long period of occupation. The group’s actions and statements align completely with the ruling far-right party’s discourse on post-war events, which seeks to equate the crimes of fascist forces with actions of the anti-fascist resistance. Among far-right groups in Italy, this has largely involved the instrumentalization of the foibe—killings of occupation troops and collaborators in the immediate aftermath of WWII.
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Since before 2005, when this Remembrance Day was introduced into the national calendar, right-wing parties have shaped a narrative claiming that thousands were killed and tens of thousands forced to emigrate from Yugoslavia in the period following Italy’s capitulation and the later defeat of Nazi Germany—solely for being Italian. This narrative ignores the atrocities committed by the Italian Fascist occupation and its collaborators in an attempt to normalize far-right positions. The efforts have been aided by concessions made by center and center-left parties, which have, in turn, undermined the legacy of Italy’s own resistance movement.
Changing Course (Cambiare Rotta), a left-wing youth organization in Bologna that organized a counter-picket against National Youth, stated: “The purpose behind the institution of this day was, in fact, to portray the fascist colonists killed in the foibe as innocent victims of a fabricated anti-Italian hatred, while ignoring the Italians who fought in the resistance under Tito’s command, as well as the Slavic collaborators who met the same fate as the Italian fascists.”
“Today, those who attack the resistance of Yugoslav partisans also attack resistance to Western colonialism, as we saw with the unified-network response to the events of October 7 in Palestine,” the organization added.
