Italian minister Salvini’s Mussolini dog whistle

This 21 June 2018 Italian video shows Alessandra Mussolini, granddaughter of dictator Benito Mussolini, with the same fascist ideas as her grandfather. Ms Mussolini is now a Member of the European Parliament for the party of convicted criminal businessman and politician Silvio Berlusconi. In the video, Ms Mussolini claims that the racist anti-refugee policies of new extreme right Italian Minister of the Interior Salvini are ‘very good’.

By Hilary Clarke, CNN:

Italy’s Salvini channels Mussolini in tweet on late dictator’s birthday

July 30, 2018

Populist

Racist politicians like Salvini should not be called ‘populist’.

Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini made a veiled reference to the late fascist dictator Benito Mussolini on Sunday.

Salvini tweeted “tanti nemici, tanto onore”, meaning “so many enemies, so much honor”, a variation on Mussolini‘s famous “molti nemici, molto onore”, or “many enemies, much honor.” He tweeted the comments on the anniversary of Mussolini‘s birth.

Salvini‘s tweet came in response to a magazine article about Salvini’s critics, including the Catholic Church and leading left-wing intellectuals … .

Separately, in an interview with the UK’s Sunday Times newspaper

Part of the anti-Semitic and otherwise racist Rupert Murdoch empire.

, Salvini, from the right-wing League party, said Italy’s low birth rate is being used as an excuse to “import immigrants”.

“A country which does not create children is destined to die”, he said. “We have created a ministry of the family to work on fertility, nurseries, on a fiscal system which takes large families into account. At the end of this mandate, the government will be measured on the number of newborns more than on its public debt.”

He said that Italy’s “tradition, our story, our identity”, was at stake as the left uses the fertility crisis as an “excuse” to “import migrants”.

Last week the leading Roman Catholic weekly Famiglia Cristiana called Salvini the devil in a blistering critique of the interior minister’s migration proposals.

The magazine ran a front cover with a Latin headline: “Vade retro, Salvini”, a play on Jesus’ words: “Get behind me, Satan.” …

Salvini’s comments come as Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte arrives in Washington for a summit with Trump on Monday.

In Rome, Salvini and Le Pen launch campaign for a neo-fascist Europe: here.