The Italian Republic and its
Constitution are the fruit of a Liberation resulting from both
the Resistance against the occupying Nazi forces and the
rejection of Fascism, its ideology and the 20 years of Fascist
dictatorship in Italy, former Constitutional Court president
Giovanni Maria Flick said on Friday.
The Constitution "is the result of a Constituent Assembly that
included a liberal, actionist and republican component, a
Christian Democrat component and a social-communist component,"
said Flick, commenting on the furore surrounding Senate Speaker
Ignazio La Russa after he said in an interview with daily
newspaper La Repubblica that "there is no mention of
anti-Fascism" in the Italian Constitution.
"To discuss today whether the Constitution has explicit
connotations of anti-fascism is more an issue for philosophers
or linguists; it does not seem to me to be an appropriate and
important issue right now in our country, which needs cohesion
from everyone to move forward," he added.
Earlier Elly Schlein, the leader of opposition, centre-left
Democratic Party (PD), hit back at La Russa, a leading exponent
of Premier Giorgia Meloni's right-wing Brothers of Italy (FdI)
party who is not unfamiliar with controversy.
"He said anti-Fascism isn't in the Constitution, we say that
anti-Fascism is our Constitution," Schlein told a party meeting
at Riano, near Rome.
Opposition parties have called for La Russa to resign.
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