A new member of the government with a troubled past. On Monday, Giorgia Meloni, the far-right president of the Italian Council, appointed Galeazzo Bignami as Delegate Minister in charge of Infrastructure, Reuters reports. This member of the Fratelli d’Italia party sparked outrage in 2016 after a newspaper published a photo of him wearing a swastika armband on his left arm.
Galeazzo Bignami, 47, retained his mandate as deputy during the last legislative elections. Before joining Fratelli d’Italia, the elected far-right also went through the Forza Italia party created by Silvio Berlusconi and part of the coalition that brought Giorgia Meloni to power in the last elections.
Galeazzo Bignami said in a statement Monday that he felt “deep shame” at the images and strongly condemned “all forms of totalitarianism,” calling Nazism and any movement linked to it “absolute evil.”
Giorgia Meloni did not comment on the 2016 photo but has repeatedly condemned the racist and anti-Jewish laws enacted by dictator Benito Mussolini in 1938.
“I have always considered the (anti-Semitic) racial laws of 1938 to be the lowest point in Italian history, a disgrace that will stain our people forever,” he told parliament last week.
Source: BFM TV
