One of its candidates has been suspended by the far-right Italian party Brothers of Italy after glorifying Adolf Hitler on social media. Brothers of Italy is expected to win Sunday’s election.
Agrigento, Sicily, party coordinator Calogero Pisano compared leader Giorgia Meloni to “a great statesman of 70 years ago” in a 2014 Facebook post.
He clarified that he wasn’t referring to Benito Mussolini but rather a “German.”
The party said Mr Pisano no longer represented it at any level.
Ms Meloni has been trying to distance the Brothers of Italy from its neo-fascist roots
The party leads the polls ahead of Sunday’s vote, with promises of tax cuts and a hard line on immigration.
Mr Pisano also expressed support for Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to Italian news agency Ansa.
Ruth Dureghello, the president of Rome’s Jewish Community, criticized the comments, saying “the idea that someone who hails Hitler could sit in the next parliament is unacceptable”, Ansa reported.
Founded in 2012, Brothers of Italy (Fratelli d’Italia) has its political roots in the Italian Social Movement (MSI), which emerged from the wartime dictator Benito Mussolini’s fascism. The party maintains the logo of post-war far-right parties: the tricolor flame, often perceived as the fire burning on Mussolini’s tomb.
Embracing a controversial old motto, “God, fatherland, and family”, Ms Meloni says she wants tax cuts and to have Italy’s president elected by popular vote. She also campaigns against LGBT rights, wants a naval blockade of Libya, and has warned repeatedly against Muslim migrants.
Ms Meloni strongly rejects the fascist label, saying recently it had been “consigned to history”.
In Italy’s last elections in 2018, her party received little more than 4% of the vote, but she’s now the favorite to win. Backed by two other right-wing parties, the League and Forza Italia, polls suggest they are heading for a majority in Italy’s two houses of parliament.