A granddaughter of the founder of fascism, Benito Mussolini, has discovered that she is more moderate than the far-right Brothers of Italy party, led by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, which still bears the flame that burns on the tomb of the Sweet. Rachele Mussolini, a councillor in Rome from this party, is leaving because she thinks it is too right-wing. Mainly, on social rights, the most visible line of clash in recent months in the debates on immigration, family or the LGTBIQ community.
She is joining Forza Italia, the party founded by Silvio Berlusconi and also a partner in the coalition government, which has been working for months on its own profile as a more civilised right-wing party, distancing itself precisely on these issues. “For me it is time to turn the page and join a party that I feel is closer to my moderate and centrist sensibilities,” the councillor explained on social media.
It is yet another symptom, very significant given the surname in question, of the increasingly visible cracks in Meloni’s Executive, made up of two far-right parties that compete fiercely with each other, Brothers of Italy and La Liga, and a third, Forza Italia, which is trying to take over all the centre space that they are leaving behind. And that includes the reception and signing of fugitives from the other two parties who are fleeing extremism.
For example, Rachele Mussolini is with Forza Italia in the debate that she raised this summer, to the annoyance of her partners, resurrecting the idea of the so-called Ius scholae: granting Italian nationality to children of immigrants who complete a ten-year cycle of studies, instead of waiting to begin the process at age 18. “And why not?” Mussolini explained in an interview with The Republic“It is natural to grant citizenship to a boy who was perhaps born in Italy and who speaks the Roman dialect better than I do. It is a way of calming the problems of integration, which otherwise become more acute. It is also an enrichment if cultures meet, while respecting traditions.” To say this in Brothers of Italy, a party dedicated to cutting immigration at the root and which sees the Italian homeland and identity in danger, is almost anathema.
She has also supported the rights of the LGBTIQ community and civil unions. Separated, with two daughters, she never married and believes that the traditional family is just another model of family. At the Olympic Games she distanced herself from the attacks on the Algerian boxer Imane Khelif, who was accused by the far right of not being a woman after defeating an Italian boxer. Mussolini defended her: “It was an unworthy witch hunt, she was unjustly lynched.”
Contrary to the fascist salute
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Rachele Mussolini, 50, is younger and less well-known than her fiery half-sister Alessandra, 61, who has also entered politics. She is the daughter of Romano’s second marriage, the son of the Sweetand jazz musician, while Alessandra’s mother was Sophia Loren’s sister. The two stepsisters don’t speak much. But while Alessandra has not been re-elected to the European Parliament and has been in decline for years, after a life in which she has mixed politics and showbiz – actress; she recorded an album sold only in Japan; a talk show host famous for her TV numbers; a contestant on the Reality TV―, Rachele is a name on the rise and with some pull.
She stood for election to the Rome municipal elections two terms ago and in the last one she was the most voted candidate in the city (in an open list system). Her surname remains magnetic for those nostalgic for the Sweet,which abound in Rome, the city of Meloni and his entire circle, who grew up in the post-fascist party, the MSI (Italian Social Movement), originated in the line of succession of the current Brothers of Italy. On the other hand, Rachele Mussolini has openly declared herself opposed to all the paraphernalia of the Roman salutes that proliferate in far-right rallies, as an anachronism of the past, and even to the famous tricolour flame of the Brothers of Italy symbol.
The curious thing is that there has been speculation that her departure from the party is due to her wanting to make a leap in politics and she was not included by Meloni on the lists for the European elections precisely because her surname is a heavy burden at a time when the Prime Minister wanted to present herself in Europe as a right-winger who had nothing to do with fascism. Although in reality, the moderate now seems to be Mussolini’s granddaughter, and Meloni, at least in Italy, is more far-right than her.
