Mussolini clashes with Macerata mayor over Duce pinata

(ANSA) - Macerata, April 27 - Centre-right Forza Italia MEP and granddaughter of Benito Mussolini Alessandra Mussolini nearly came to blows with centre-left Democratic Party (PD) Macerata Mayor Romano Carancini after visiting the Marche city two days after an anti-Fascist group put up a pinata puppet of Il Duce resembling his hanging by the feet in a Milan square after he was shot by Italian partisans in 1944, and urged children to smash it to get sweets on Liberation Day.
    Mussolini said the pinata was a "disgrace, an obscene act" and demanded the mayor apologise to the city and withdraw the mandate of a councillor.
    "You should be ashamed," replied Carancini.
    Mussolini said Macerata, which saw a neo-Nazi shoot four African migrants February 4 after a Roman woman was found chopped up in two suitcases at the end of January, was "a city that is a theatre of violence that must leave more space for democracy, for uniting people.
    "A puppet was hung head down! What message does that send?".
    Mussolini urged Italian President Sergio Mattarella to "say something" about the incident.
    Fascist dictator Mussolini was hanged by the feet with his mistress Claretta Petacci and other Fascist high-ups in Milan's Piazzale Loreto, and a mob smashed his head in.