EC Chief Calls Fascism in Italy ‘a Hideous Beast’

PARIS — European Commission President Jacques Delors hit out at neo-fascists in Italy’s new government, saying the country had been contaminated by “a hideous beast.”

Delors was asked in an interview about published remarks by Italian neo-fascist leader Gianfranco Fini, who said the June, 1944, D-day landings marked the loss of Europe’s cultural identity.

“I read that with rage in my heart,” Delors said. “(Fini) even added that until 1938, when (Fascist dictator Benito) Mussolini passed racist laws, fascism could not be considered negative.”

At stake, Delors said, was “the rejection of others, of he who does not have the same opinion as you, the same religion, or whose skin is a different color.”

“This is the new hideous beast which threatens Europe. It is already at work in former Yugoslavia, but it is also at work contaminating Western Europe,” he said.