The far-right Brothers of Italy party has suspended an election candidate after it was discovered he had praised Adolf Hitler and described the group’s leader, Giorgia Meloni, as a “modern fascist”.
Calogero Pisano, a coordinator for Brothers of Italy in the Sicilian province of Agrigento, wrote on Facebook in 2014 that the Nazi leader was “a great statesman”.
The post, which sparked condemnation from Italy’s Jewish community, emerged in a story by La Repubblica newspaper days before Italians go to the polls in general elections.
The newspaper found another post by Pisano, written in the same year, saying he supports the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, while the words referring to his party’s leader were written in 2016.
Brothers of Italy, a descendant of the neofascist Italian Social Movement (MSI), leads a coalition that is forecast to win a comfortable victory in the elections on Sunday, paving the way for Meloni to potentially become prime minister.
Meloni has tried to distance her party from its neofascist origins, saying in August that it had “handed fascism to history decades ago”. However, she refused calls to remove the party’s tricoloured flamed symbol, which had come from MSI’s official logo.
Within a few hours of Pisano’s social media posts reappearing, Brothers of Italy issued a statement saying he had been suspended with “immediate effect”.
“From this moment on, Pisano no longer represents Brothers of Italy at any level and is prohibited from using the symbol,” the statement said, adding that Pisano would be “referred to the party’s supervisory board” for any further action.
Pisano said: “Years ago, I wrote things that were deeply wrong and deleted my personal profile on Facebook because I was ashamed. I don’t know how La Repubblica found the posts, but I unambiguously condemn those expressions and apologise to anyone offended by them.”
