Galeazzo Bignami, elected to the chamber on the list of Fratelli d’Italia, apologized for this photo, which “was taken in a private setting”.
Article written by
Posted on 11/01/2022 11:59 AM Updated on 11/01/2022 12:08 PM
Reading time: 1 min
The appointment of a far-right MP to the Italian government, who was photographed wearing a Nazi armband in 2005, sparked controversy in the country on Tuesday, November 1. Galeazzo Bignami, elected to the Chamber on the list of the Fratelli d’Italia, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s post-fascist party, was appointed Assistant Minister for Infrastructure on Monday. But this 47-year-old lawyer was photographed at a party seventeen years ago wearing a black outfit and wearing a swastika armband on his left arm.
The new number of the Ministerio de Infraestructura de Italia del gobierno de Meloni, Galeazzo Bignami, luciendo un brazalete con una esvástica. pic.twitter.com/PBPbnZe3Hu
— Miquel Ramos (@Miquel_R) November 1, 2022
His appointment was “an offence, an indecency towards the constitution, memory, history and the victims of the swastika,” a symbol used by the Nazis, Democratic Party MP Marco Furfaro responded on Twitter. In a press release, Galeazzo Bignami condemned “every form of totalitarianism, libertine and anti-democratic language” and described Nazism as “absolutely evil”. The 2005 photo was taken “in a private context” and “I’ve apologized for it more than once,” he said.
Other deputy ministerial appointments announced on Monday have drawn criticism from the left-wing opposition. Claudio Durigon of the Labor Ministry had proposed in 2021 that a park in Latina, south of Rome, bearing the name of assassinated anti-mafia judges Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino be renamed to that of Arnaldo Mussolini, the dictator’s brother. The controversy had forced him to resign. “If the past doesn’t go away. Dark shadows on the election of the delegated ministers,” headlined the center-left daily La Repubblica on Tuesday.