Mussolini’s heir issues bombshell statement about dictator great-grandad | World | News

Benito Mussolini’s great-grandson has suggested that life under the fascist dictator was “not so bad”. Caio Mussolini claimed his book, “Mussolini and the Rise of Fascism: the Untold Story”, shows there has been “80 years of lies”.

Fascism was a “reaction” to communist violence in Italy following the Russian Revolution, the author alleged. Mussolini’s rules were a good thing for the country’s Jewish population, he added, despite the autocrat having excluded Jews from public life in 1938.

He was not an antisemite, Mussolini said, adding that Jews were with him during his 1922 March on Rome and were handed “important roles” in his government. The leader’s descendant claimed race laws were forced upon him by Adolf Hitler, and mentioned that his ancestor had a Jewish lover, Margherita Sarfatti.

Italy assisted Jews escaping Europe in the 1930s to travel from Trieste to Palestine, Mussolini added. But Aldo Cazzullo, who wrote “Mussolini the Gang Boss: Why We Should Be Ashamed of Fascism”, has challenged this version of events.

He told The Times that “racial laws were the natural outcome of fascism, in which the idea of races and nations asserting superiority is implicit”.

Mussolini argued that the discriminatory legislation was “applied softly, the Italian way”, citing Jewish writer Primo Levi being allowed to graduate from university in 1941.

He added that it was not until 1943, when Germany occupied Italy, that Jews were transported to death camps.

But Cazzullo thinks the regime should be judged by its results, and that Mussolini failed on all counts.

“It destroyed liberty, left Italians with no savings at the end of the war and was defeated militarily, plus the moral defeat of allying with Hitler,” he said.

It comes as concern has been raised over reports that students have been told to expose their “left-wing teachers”.

In January, Student Action (Azione Studentesca), a youth organisation allegedly linked to Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party, urged school students aged between 14 and 19 to criticise members of staff who purportedly espoused left-leaning ideas, The Morning Star reported.