Just a Joke

Oh Silvio, you joker. Of COURSE you didn't really mean it when you praised Mussolini as a man who "did well"for Italy, apart from a few little mistakes. Like the race laws and the deportations. And what timing. You must have thought you were back doing stand-up comedy, Silvio you old trouper, there at the Milan rail station, at the site of the deportations themselves, on the actual European Day of Remembrance for victims of the Shoah. Who but you, Silvio, would have the BALLS--yeah, Silvio, you got 'em--to crack your little joke there, of all places. And did you let your pal Brunetta in on the joke, or was he just improvising--chip off the old block--when he chimed in with "It's what most Italians think"? As if it's not just you, Silvio, but the whole Paese that's a sick joke?

And leave it to the Swedes and their EU commissioner Cecelia Malmström to throw the wet blanket. Can't those people take a joke? Malmström--and hey, Silvio, is she hot or what?--she thinks it's a problem that pols like you are running around all over Europe stirring up "hatred and extremism." Tell her, "Who, me?" Silvio, 'cause of course it's not just you. It's Golden Dawn and Copé's pal Michèle Tabarot and indeed his whole wing of the UMP cozying up to France's right-wing terrorist legacy. It's the jackboots in Budapest, it's the xenophobes in Amsterdam, it's the True Finns, the Austrian Freedom Party, the Norwegian Democrats and the Danish People's Party ... You're not alone, Silvio, you're part of something big, really big. Why, you could even win this thing, and if you do? Well, won't the joke be on the rest of us ...

Update: While many have expressed outrage at Berlusconi's untimely remarks, Nichi Vendola has offered the most useful and concise version of what exactly Italian fascism was and did:

"... the suppression of basic liberties, censorship of the free press, the violence of militias, exile, prison, torture, and death for the better elements of the Italian population at that time... 27,735 years of prison sentences for thousands of free minds... in the first months of 1921 alone 17 newspaper offices and printing presses were destroyed and 59 community centers burned down along with 119 union halls and 117 cooperatives, 83 granges, 141 left-wing party headquarters, more than 100 libraries and cultural centers ..."

[...] cosa è stata la privazione delle libertà fondamentali, la censura sulla libera stampa, le violenze squadriste e di regime, che cosa è stato l’esilio, il carcere, la tortura, la morte per la parte migliore dell’Italia di allora. Berlusconi è un falsario, quando finge di non sapere che il Tribunale Speciale del fascismo condannò a 27.735 anni di carcere migliaia di menti libere, le persone più belle del nostro Paese.Berlusconi èun falsario, quando finge di non sapere che gia’ nei primi mesi del 1921 i fascisti riuscirono a distruggere 17 fra sedi di giornale e tipografie , diedero alle fiamme 59 Case del Popolo e 119 Camere del Lavoro e 117 cooperative, 83 Leghe contadine, 141 sezioni del Psi e del Pci, oltre 100 circoli culturali e biblioteche.