Mussolini heir closes in on centre of power

From Richard Owen in Rome





GIANFRANCO FINI, the Italian “post-Fascist” leader who once described
Mussolini as “the greatest statesman of the 20th century”, attained
international respectability yesterday when he was named Italian Foreign
Minister.

The appointment is likely to enhance Signor FiniÂ’s chances of eventually
becoming Prime Minister. Signor Fini, 52, who took one of the biggest
gambles in Italian postwar politics by transforming the neo-Fascists into a
mainstream conservative party ten years ago, replaces Franco Frattini, Italy
Â’s new European Commissioner. His appointment had been rumoured for weeks
but had been held up by wrangling within the centre-right coalition of
Silvio Berlusconi over tax reforms.

Signor FiniÂ’s party, Alleanza Nazionale, which is the second largest party
in the coalition after Signor BerlusconiÂ’s Forza Italia, has long demanded a
greater role in government.

Signor Fini — dapper, able, urbane and ambitious — had made no secret of his
desire to be Foreign Minister. He is expected to take a higher profile than
Signor Frattini, a Berlusconi protégé.

There are lingering suspicions about Signor FiniÂ’s record, both in Europe
and on the Italian Left. Apart from his remark about MussoliniÂ’s greatness,
in a 1994 interview with La Stampa, Alleanza Nazionale retains some features
of Fascist social and economic thinking in its emphasis on family values,
nationalism and the role of the corporate state.

On the other hand, its democratic and European credentials are not in
question. Last year Signor Fini took even his detractors aback by proposing
that immigrants from outside the EU should have the right to vote in local
elections. He has twice visited Israel in the past year to make amends for
Fascist anti-Semitism, and has backed the controversial Israeli wall on the
West Bank.

In 1996 he told The Times that the legacy of Fascism had been overcome, that
Europe need not fear the re-emergence of a strong man at ItalyÂ’s helm, and
that a verdict on Mussolini was “best left to the historians”.

In 2002, when he was named the Italian delegate to the EU Convention
drafting the new European Constitution, he retracted his remark about
Mussolini. Sergio Romano, a former ambassador and ItalyÂ’s foremost
commentator on foreign affairs, said that Signor Fini had “crossed the
desert” and had a “definitive” opportunity to put the past behind him.

Signor Fini joined the Italian Social Movement (MSI), the ideological
descendant of MussoliniÂ’s Blackshirts, as a young man, becoming its youth
leader at 24 and its national secretary in 1987, at 35.

Although Fascism is banned by the postwar Italian Constitution, MSI members
made the Fascist “Roman salute” at rallies and had a reputation for street
violence. In 1994 Signor Fini stunned the rank and file by declaring that
this legacy had to be abandoned, renaming the party the Alleanza Nazionale,
or National Alliance. Diehard neo-Fascists who formed breakaway splinter
groups have recently been joined by Alessandra Mussolini, the granddaughter
of Il Duce, who has become increasingly critical of Signor Fini.

Signor Fini, who on a trip to Auschwitz in 1999 was pelted with eggs and
snowballs by demonstrators, also condemned “the shameful chapters in the
history of our people” while in Israel and denounced the 1938 Fascist “race
laws” as “disgraceful”.

Ariel Sharon, the Israeli Prime Minister, called him “a good and friendly
leader”, adding that it was “time to look to the future, not the past”.

Signor Berlusconi, 68, has been in power for a record 3½ years, but faces
coalition squabbles, falling opinion poll ratings, strikes and allegations
of corruption.

FROM FAR-RIGHT FIREBRAND TO FIERCE FRIEND OF ISRAEL

1952: born in Bologna

1975: graduates with first-class degree in psychology from La Sapienza
university, in Rome

At 24 becomes youth leader of the Italian Social Movement (MSI), descendant
of MussoliniÂ’s Blackshirts

Journalist on Il Secolo DÂ’Italia, the neo-Fascist paper


1983: elected councillor for the MSI in Latina, a town south of Rome created
by Mussolini

1987: becomes MSI party leader and elected to Parliament


1992: embarrassed when supporters mark the 70th anniversary of MussoliniÂ’s
March on Rome by wearing black shirts and giving the fascist salute


1994: transforms the MSI into moderate Alleanza Nazionale (AN), retaining
the MSI symbol — a flame — but jettisoning the Mussolini legacy at party
congress at Fiuggi in January 1995


1994: takes AN into the short-lived centre-right Government of Silvio
Berlusconi

May 2001: becomes deputy Prime Minister when Berlusconi and the centre Right
return to power

January 2002: appointed Italian delegate to the EU Convention drawing up the
European Constitution

November 2004: becomes fourth Foreign Minister since 2001, after Renato
Ruggiero, who was pressurised to resign, Berlusconi himself, who took the
post as an interim measure, and Franco Frattini

Married to Daniela. One daughter. Keen fan of Lazio football club and
forceful opponent of racist violence on the terraces













Copyright 2004 Times Newspapers Ltd.