Mayor of Jesolo: “I am not revoking Mussolini’s honorary citizenship”

The Municipality of Jesolo does not intend to revoke the honorary citizenship of Benito Mussolini and rejects the request made by the Anpi on 25 April to the sender.

The administration of the Venetian beach justifies itself by emphasizing that this honour, as reported by the local newspapers, is a historical act that cannot be justified with the parameters of the present, one cannot cancel everything that was done during the fascist period. And in order not to give rise to misunderstandings, the Municipality remarks that it recognizes itself in the principles of the Constitution “and does not need further actions that have a pure commercial value”.

Jesolo is not the only Italian municipality to have dealt with the issue: some have opted for the revocation such as, for example, Bergamo, Naples, Modena, Arezzo and Matera, in others it has not been followed up such as Brescia, Ravenna, Oristano and Bologna. The position of the provincial Anpi of Venice through the clarification of its president Cristina Paoletti is dry: «honorary citizenship cannot be compared to a work or building built during fascism. It is a symbolic value – she says – which presupposes the full deserving of whoever receives the honor both at the time of conferment and subsequently. Any honor can be revoked when the recipient is unworthy of it”.

The mayor of Jesolo, Christofer De Zotti, replies that even the previous administration of which the Democratic Party was a part has not revoked this citizenship” and reiterates his position in the values ​​of 25 April, recalling, among other things, “that he took part in the garrison of solidarity towards the CGIL, stigmatizing the violent attack that the union had suffered. In any case – he notes – rather than thinking about removing, I would like to add: last April 25th the Jesolo partisans who fell during the Resistance were remembered, and therefore I propose to dedicate a street to the memory of these people”.