Speaker 1:

When fascists get nostalgic, they lift their arm and voice just like in the old days.  This is as the tradition expresses itself in Predappio, the place of birth of the “Duce” who quite apparently is immortal. On October 28, 5,000 of his postmodern fans have assembled there to celebrate the anniversary of his march on Rome. At that date, the “Duce” and his black shirts conquered the power in Italy.

Speaker 2:

The only way to behave correctly is to be a fascist. We want an Italy just free of corruption, crimes and party power. We want an Italy which first of all respects the Italians. Italy must remain Italian.

Speaker 3:

Today's politicians don't even succeed to accomplish in a century what Mussolini has accomplished within 20 years. He has created everything, the spitals, maternity regulation, the colonies, social welfare. We have to thank only him for all this.

Speaker 1:

As an ideological father figure, Mussolini is still rather alive, at least in the historical consciousness of his compatriots. Already then, the masses regarded him as the greatest statesman of all times. Many Italians do this certainly today. At all events, Mussolini’s aura shines up to the presence. Mussolini’s power has left many architectural traces in Rome, primarily in the Foro Italico, sports facilities built by the fascist academy at the end of the thirties. An obelisk is located in the center, into which the dictator had ordered to engrave the words "Mussolini Dux “. The inscription should have been removed after the end of the second World War, but later on one did not regard this to be necessary any longer.

Speaker 4:

A general picture succeeded and negative aspects such as the repression and the warlike potential did not move to the foreground. The fascism is judged from an interior point of view. This surely has to do something with the fact that the war crime tribunals did not taken place which certainly would have created another kind of a dominant interpretation of history.

Speaker 1:

The villa Carpena doesn't stand far of Predappio. There, Mussolini has lived with his family. On October 28th, the building has received its higher consecrations as a museum and culture place but would rather earn the name place of worship, though. That is because it fails to show any historical critical distance to its object. There, one can gaze in admiration at the personal belongings, the furnishings but also at the complete written notes of the Duce. Two Lombardic businessmen have bought the villa and opened for the audience in summer. It might become a good business.

Speaker 5:

I like this man because he has come from nothing and then he got world-famous. Already at a young age he has fought for Italy. For an empire with colonies which already all other countries had, except for Italy only. He wanted to create an Italy which hadn't existed since the decline of the Roman empire 2,000 years ago any more.

Speaker 1:

The Mussolini museum is frequented well, and this contributes to the mystification of the hero. Here, at all events, one can learn little about the atrocities. The worshiping recollection is not interested in political facts. And one hardly remembers the suppression of the freedom of the press or the brutal persecution of opposition or the anti-Semitic race laws up or the war. The nostalgic rather talk about the philanthropic social policy or the bonification of the marsh areas around the capital, of law and order in such Roman empire. And they point, again and again, at the testimonies of Mussolini who made competition even to the Colosseum with his gigantean accommodation Esposizione Universale Roma, or EUR, the world exhibition grounds in the south of the town. Jean Franco Fini, head of the Allianza Nationale and today’s most important coalition partner of Silvio Berlusconi, also has been swimming on the fascist wave of enthusiasm. Meanwhile, Fini is regarded as a socially acceptable democrat, because he considerably dissociates himself from the fascist inheritance of his party and he forced the right party wing to leave the party. Today, the tight fascists regard him as a traitor.

Speaker 4:

In 1995, the Allianze Nazionale has changed its political program. There are rather neo-Nazi symbols which are shown on scrawls at the walls, posters and flags. In the stadium they rather appear with swastikas and also with the so-called Celt cross. Therefore, there rather are signals of a diffuse neo-Nazism which is spread by quite little circles but nevertheless is leaving visible traces.

Speaker 1:

The martial rituals of Predappio which extends on to Mussolini’s descendants now, grow to be not so much a right-wing extremist program, but rather a personality cult for Benito Mussolini. This also, for example, concerns his son Romano Mussolini who leads a quite unpolitical life as Jazz piano player. He sees no reason to dissociate of his father as well.

Speaker 5:

Mussolini was a man of the peace. Unfortunately, he has been forced by the political circumstances of his time to take vigorous action. But he primarily was a peaceful person, a builder who ruled Italy with much wisdom and great love for the people in his native country for two decades.

Speaker 1:

Also, Mussolini wine is used to obscure the historical awareness in Predappio. The whole village profits from the sale of fascistic souvenirs. It is a shuddering folklore in the surroundings of happy harmlessness. The good old Duce is admired, a new leader shape isn't in view yet. But the fascists of the future are already taught how one raises arm and voice.