Italy's right-wing government led by Giorgio Meloni was criticized today for honoring fascist Italian soldiers who died in the 1942 Battle of El Alamein, Egypt, during World War II in which British forces defeated Axis troops in a turning point in the war. .
The Italian Ministry of Defense took to social media on the occasion of the 82nd anniversary of the Battle of El Alamein to pay tribute to Italian soldiers "who sacrificed their lives for our freedom" and described the losses of Italian fascists and German Nazis as "heroic and tragic".
Italy's center-left opposition criticized the government's commemoration, and the Five Star Movement pointed out that it was "grossly inappropriate" to say that fascist Italy's troops were fighting for freedom.
"The Italian soldiers in El Alamein did not fall for our freedom, as the Ministry of Defense claims, but the fascist government sent them there to die," Gianfranco Pagliarulo, president of the ANPI National Partisan Association, said today.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgio Meloni leads the far-right "Brothers of Italy" party, which has its roots in the neo-fascist movement that emerged after the fall of Mussolini.
Meloni tried to distance herself and her party from such a past and openly condemned all totalitarian regimes, including fascist ones.
But the opposition has repeatedly condemned the prime minister and some of her closest allies for refusing to declare themselves anti-fascists.
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