Free speech, the fascist salute, and Italy's prime minister
I had the privilege of studying constitutional law under Professor Gerald Gunther. Professor Gunther was born in Germany. His family fled to the U.S. in 1938 when he was 10 or 11.
In the early 1970s, Gunther visited to Germany to lecture. When he returned, he told our seminar that he had enjoyed the visit and been treated very well — but that Germans still didn’t understand free speech.
Many years later, I recounted this to a French philosopher who, at the time, was teaching at Yale. She amended Gunther’s statement. Continental Europeans, she said, have a different understanding of free speech than Americans. (These days, as Gunther found out towards the end of his time at Stanford, many Americans have a different understanding of free speech than the traditional American one.)
Italy has a law forbidding fascist symbolism, including the “Roman salute” that was so prevalent under Mussolini. I believe that in the U.S., banning that salute would be unconstitutional. (One might explain this divergence by noting that the U.S. never experienced fascist rule. But maybe our unwillingness to ban this sort of expression helps explain, or at least is related to, the fact that fascism never took root here.)
Italy’s ban on the Roman salute hasn’t been taken seriously for years, though. According to the Washington Post:
Laws against the Roman salute are laxly enforced, and the gestures. . .have been fixtures at extreme far-right events for decades. Recent Italian prime ministers, even from the political left, have rarely raised a ruckus over their use.
But suddenly, there is a ruckus over the salute. Why? Because opponents of Italy’s conservative prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, see a political advantage in raising one.
The salute — this “fixture at extreme far-right events” — was in evidence at a recent rally commemorating the 1978 slaying of three neo-fascist youths. Neither Meloni, her party, nor her party’s youth arm participated in this event.
Yet, Meloni’s opponents are insisting that she denounce use of the salute.
As noted above, recent Italian prime ministers haven’t done so. However, Meloni’s opponents say her situation is different. According to the Post, they say she must be held to a different standard because she comes from the political far-right and, as a teenager, joined the Italian Social Movement, a post-World War II successor to Mussolini’s short-lived Repubblica Sociale. .
You can see the box Meloni’s opponents have put her in. If she doesn’t denounce the salute, she’ll be attacked — as she is being attacked — for being soft on fascism (or worse). If she denounces it, there will be no infringement of free speech (assuming no prosecutions). However, she will be acknowledging that it’s fair to hold her to a different standard because of her views as a teenager. In effect, she will be legitimizing claims that she has fascist tendencies she must overcome.
Melloni’s critics include not just her domestic opponents, but also Vladimir Putin — Europe’s leading present-day fascist. And like the attacks of the domestic critics, Putin’s attacks stem from opportunism and animus. Meloni has stood solidly with Ukraine and against Russia’s failed blitzkrieg.
There is nothing remotely fascist about Meloni. She has denounced fascism and called Mussolini’s deportation of Jews “ the worst moment in Italian history.” And, as just noted, she’s a steadfast member of the coalition of European leaders opposing Putin’s invasion of Ukarine.
Meloni is somewhat socially conservative, but has promised not to touch Italy’s law permitting abortion. According to this analysis by Danielle Pletka of AEI, Meloni’s views on LGBTQ issues “fall slightly to the left of mainstream U.S. conservative views.”
Meloni is viewed as a hardliner on immigration. However, her efforts on this issue have consisted mainly of battling with Germany and France over burden-sharing and the refusal of these countries to accept refugees who are overwhelming Italian camps. As Pletka says, Meloni isn’t much different from previous prime ministers in this regard.
Pletka concludes that Meloni “ is more Margaret Thatcher than Viktor Orbán, more Ronald Reagan than Donald Trump — at least, thus far.”
That being the case, Meloni has every right to resent demands that she, unlike previous prime ministers, must denounce the fascist salute.
Whether, in the end, she does so will probably depend on a political calculation. And that’s only fair since the attacks on her over this issue, whether by her domestic opponents or by Putin, seem politically motivated.