Grasso rules out Pantheon for V.E III

(ANSA) - Rome, December 18 - Senate Speaker Pietro Grasso on Monday ruled out the possibility that the House of Savoy's desire to see Victor Emmanuel III buried in the Pantheon will be granted as the controversy about the return from Egypt of the body of Italy's penultimate king continued. Representatives of Italy's Jewish community and partisan association ANPI expressed dismay that a State flight was used to bring back the body of the king, who signed the Fascist racial laws targeting Jews, is accused of complicity with the regime of Benito Mussolini and died in exile in 1947 in Alexandria, Egypt. Victor Emmanuel III's remains were interred on Sunday in the Sanctuary of Vicoforte, a church in Piedmont of the House of Savoy. Members of the House of Savoy had said they would like him to be buried in the Pantheon along with Italy's other monarchs.
    "A mature, democratic country has to know how to face up to its past," Grasso said. "The responsibilities before, during and after Fascism and the signing of the shameful racial laws do not allow for any revisionism about the figure and actions of Victor Emmanuel III.
    "The return of the body to Italy is a mere act of human compassion without any public honour, as the possibility of a burial in the Pantheon has been categorically excluded". The President of Rome's Jewish Community, Ruth Dureghello, had poured scorn on the idea of burying Victor Emmanuel III in the Pantheon.
    "I am convinced that the institutions will take the right position on this," Dureghello. "It would truly be a mockery to put the body near to the place where so many Italian Jews were deported".