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A court in Bari convicted 12 members of Italy’s neo-fascist CasaPound group on Thursday for attempting to reorganise the banned Fascist Party in the first judicial ruling to recognise the movement’s fascist nature.
Five defendants received 18 months in prison, and seven others were sentenced to two years and six months after also being convicted of assault, according to the court. All 12 were barred from holding political office for five years.
The case stems from an attack on 21 September 2018 in Bari’s Libertà neighbourhood, when CasaPound members assaulted anti-fascist demonstrators returning from a protest against Matteo Salvini, then interior minister and leader of the far-right Lega or League party.
The court cited violations of Articles 1 and 5 of the 1952 Scelba law, which prohibit the reorganisation of the dissolved Fascist Party and ban fascist demonstrations.
The ruling specifically cited participation in “usual fascist demonstrations” and the use of “squadrista (blackshirts) methods as a tool for political participation”.
The opposition has largely welcomed the move, with Democratic Party (PD) leader Elly Schlein calling on Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s government to dissolve CasaPound.
“Now that there’s a ruling that establishes it, the government has no choice but to do what we’ve been asking of it for a long time: dissolve CasaPound, dissolve neo-fascist organisations as laid out in the constitution,” Schlein said.
The opposition parties including the Five Star Movement (M5S) and Greens-Left Alliance have demanded Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi provide an urgent briefing to parliament and order the eviction of CasaPound’s occupied headquarters in Rome.
The defendants were also ordered to compensate victims of the attack, including former MEP Eleonora Forenza and her assistant Antonio Perillo, as well as Giacomo Petrelli and Claudio Riccio.
Others, including the National Association of Italian Partisans and the Communist Refoundation Party, will also receive compensation.
Named after a poet
CasaPound takes its name from Ezra Pound, the US modernist poet who collaborated with Fascist Italy during World War II. The group was founded in December 2003 when activists occupied a state-owned building in Rome’s Esquilino district.
The organisation took part in the 2013 and 2018 parliamentary elections, receiving less than 1% of the vote in both contests. It subsequently ceased electoral participation and now operates as a social movement.
In January 2024, Interior Minister Piantedosi condemned fascist salutes at a CasaPound rally in Rome as “contrary to our democratic culture”. However, he stated at the time that dissolving such groups was complicated, noting the law permits this only in very limited circumstances.
CasaPound spokesman Luca Marsella said the group was awaiting the court’s written reasoning, noting: “It’s a first-instance ruling”.
Defence lawyers have announced they will appeal. The court will file its written reasoning within 90 days.
Additional sources • AFP