More than eight decades after his death, the fascist dictator Benito Mussolini continues to be a divisive force in Italy as thousands of towns and cities seek to revoke his honorary citizenship, according to a report.
The bulk of Italy's 8,000 municipalities made Mussolini, who with Nazi Germany's Adolf Hitler constituted the "axis of evil" during World War II, an honorary citizen under decree by his fascist regime, the Guardian reported.
Some towns, like Naples and Matera, reversed course in 1944, but the movement stagnated for years until the National Association of Italian Partisans (ANPI), an anti-fascist group, addressed the issue and brought it to the forefront again in recent years.
"Many municipalities are unaware of Mussolini's presence among their honorary citizens due to lost archives during the war," Natalia Marino, a member of the ANPI's national committee, told the Guardian. "Some face opposition from political parties reluctant to revoke the honor, while others are hindered by laws preventing cancellation."
Some towns, like Adria, revoked Mussolini's honorary citizenship in 2021 and bestowed the honor instead on Giacomo Matteotti, a politician killed during Mussolini's reign.
Others — including Nonantola, in Modena, Bovezzo, in Brescia, and Troina, in Sicily, along with dozens more — simply revoked Mussolini's citizenship.
"Many of these towns had granted honorary citizenship to the partisans who had fought against fascism and were buried in their local cemeteries," said Marino. "The fact that Mussolini was listed as an honorary citizen in the same towns was a disgrace."
But other towns and cities found that local laws prevented them from removing the honorary citizenship designation from the deceased.
To dodge the restriction, one city, Ustica, passed a law revoking honorary citizenship after death for all — an action that also swept up Walt Disney, astronaut Malcolm Scott Carpenter and French oceanographer Jacques-Yves Costeau.
In other municipalities, the decision turned contentious.
Edith Bruck, a Hungarian poet and Auschwitz survivor, refused the honor in Anzio in 2021 because Mussolini was among those honored.
The dictator known as "Il Duce" still had "many followers in [that] territory and ... also in Europe itself, which has a poor memory," she said.
Candido De Angelis, the mayor at the time who was supported by a number of conservative parties, said he was "disappointed" by her decision.
"History must be respected, not only for Mussolini," De Angelis said.
"If someone in Anzio granted honorary citizenship to Mussolini a century ago, it didn't seem appropriate or useful to revisit this issue. It's just a political game that serves no purpose," he insisted, the Giuardian reported.
"Also, because as far as I'm concerned, fascism no longer exists. The historical judgment on fascism has been made and it is a completely negative judgment," De Angelis added.
