A mural of a neofascist youth killed
by far leftists in 1975 was defaced Wednesday night, sparking
bipartisan condemnation.
The mural commemorating Sergio Ramelli was scrawled with red
spray paint saying "Fascists hung upside down," a reference to
the Partisan desecration of the bodies of Benito Mussolini,
Fascist bigwigs, and his mistress Claretta Petacci in Milan in
1945.
Ramelli was a 19-year-old neofascist militant who died in
hospital on April 29, 1975 after being bludgeoned with a monkey
wrench by
eight far left militants on March 13 that year in one of the
most serious acts of political street gang violence that
accompanied the 'Years of Lead' of rightist and leftist terror
from the late
1960 to the early 1980s.
Ramelli, a member of the youth wing of the neo-fascist Italian
Social Movement (MSI), was targeted by Workers Vanguard after
his high-school teacher highlighted his allegedly unorthodox
views of Communism.
On the first anniversary of his death, on April 29, 1976, a
50-year-old MSI Milanese provincial chief and lawyer, Enrico
Pedenovi, was murdered by members of the far left First Line
group.
Senate Speaker Ignazio La Russa, a bigwig in Premier Giorgia
Meloni's rightwing Brothers of Italy (FdI) party, which has its
roots in the MSI, called the defacement of the mural "a vile and
cowardly act".
Milan's centre-left mayor, Giuseppe Sala, said the incident was
"a wound to Milan's memory".
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