Posted on 05/23/2008 8:34:58 PM PDT by bruinbirdman
A leading Italian neo-fascist with a nine-year conviction for conspiracy after the bombing of Bologna train station in 1980 has taken a seat in the European Parliament.
Roberto Fiore, 49, came to Britain in the wake of the bombing, which left 85 people dead and over 200 wounded. The attack was carried out by the Nucleus of Armed Revolutionaries, a far-Right terrorist group.
Although Mr Fiore, a member of the Third Position cell, was not directly involved in the execution of the bombing, he was convicted for conspiring to carry out an armed attack. He lived in the UK for several years.
"He is absolutely the most extreme person who has ever served in the European Parliament," said Glyn Ford, a Labour MEP. "There are other MEPs who feel strongly about this. We usually put up a cordon sanitaire around the far-Right politicians."
Fiore, who is close friends with Nick Griffen, the chairman of the British National Party, won his seat in Brussels after the resignation of Alessandra Mussolini.
Fiore was part of a far-right coalition, Social Alternative, which won one seat in the parliament in elections in 2005. Alessandra Mussolini had occupied the seat until her resignation in April to serve in the Italian parliament.
Since Mr Fiore was the next highest-ranking member in the coalition, he won the right to become her replacement. Mr Fiore's own party, Forza Nuova, failed to win any seats in the Italian general election last month.
He said his new career as an MEP "could not have got off to a better start".
He took part in a debate in Strasbourg on immigration this week, where he argued for temporary immigrant camps to be dismantled and their residents to be expelled. "I called for a suspension of the Schengen [free movement] treaty so that we can control our borders efficiently," he said.
Astonishing!
Duh!
*ping*
In July of 2004, Godfrey Bloom’s comments to the media provoked controversy. Shortly after being appointed to the European Parliament’s Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality on 20 July, Godfrey Bloom gave an interview in which he said: “No self-respecting small businessman with a brain in the right place would ever employ a lady of child-bearing age. That isn’t politically correct, is it, but it’s a fact of life. The more women’s rights you have, it’s actually a bar to their employment”. At the same time, he was reported as commenting that: “I just don’t think [women] clean behind the fridge enough” and continued on saying “I am here to represent Yorkshire women who always have dinner on the table when you get home”
Alessandra’s response:
“I know the British have a sense of humour about themselves, but I am from Naples and I can say that we women do know how to cook and clean the refrigerator and even be politicians, while perhaps Godfrey Bloom does not know either how to clean the refrigerator or how to be a politician”
The Fascist Party never went away. After WWII, it was known as the MSI (Italian Social Movement), changing to the AN (National Alliance) under Fini in Berlusconi’s first coalition. The geniuses in the Christian Democrat party never realized that all a party had to do to circumvent the ban on “extremist” parties under the Italian constitution that they wrote was to merely change their name!
After long and complicated court proceedings eventually two members of a far right-wing organization were condemned for the deed; Valerio Fioravanti and Francesca Mambro. They maintained their innocence throughout the long court-case and as far as I know have not changed their stance since then. The motive behind the attack remains unclear.
The whole period (mid-70s to mid-80s) is a very murky period in Italian history. Left-wing terrorism, mafia attacks on the civil society, large scale corruption in the police, secret service, among the political sphere, and the growth of far-right extremism almost managed to completely destabilize the Italian democracy.
Several experts see the finger of the Soviet Union in these events (but as you can expect, just as many derides this thesis) and before the election two years ago there was an ongoing parliamentary investigation on the Mitrokhin Archives. This was closed down when Prodi won that election and Berlusconi was forced into opposition.
Here is a link (Wikipedia) to the biography of Robert Fiore. Note that in the article above on the massacre in Bologna it says:
General Pietro Musumeci, n°2 of the SISMI (Military Intelligence and Security Service) and revealed in 1981 to be a member of Propaganda Due (P2), was charged of having created falsified evidence to charge Roberto Fiore and Gabriele Andinolfi, two leaders of Terza Posizione who had fled in exile to London, of the bombing.
The guilt of the two condemned bombers is still debated. Former Italian president Fransesco Cossiga believes in the innocence of Valerio Fioravanti and Francesca Mambro and campaigns for at retrial. His thesis is that the deed was carried out by the palestinian terror organization PFLP, as a revenge for the arrest of one of their leaders, Abu Anzeh Saleh, who had been arrested when trying to smuggle sophisticated Soviet weaponry through Italy.
Three months after Saleh was sentenced a bombing took place in Ustica and a further 5 months later the Bologna massacre. No one claimed responsibility for these attacks.
One interesting piece of information that was revealed during the Mitrokhin investigations was that on the night to the 2 August 1980, two Germans of the RAF (Rote Arme Fraktion - connected to Carlos the Jackal) - Thomas Kram and Christa Frölich -were staying in Bologna. As is well known Carlos had tight connections with the PFLP.
Information exist that Thomas Kram was a "bomb expert". Frölich was arrested a number of years later carrying large amounts of Semtex. She was convicted to 7 years for taking part in the bombing of the train between Marseille and Paris 1982.
Thomas Kram went underground for many years, but last year he and his girl friend, Adrienne Gerhäuser, were arrested by the Germans.
Real nice people, but if they had any connection to the Bologna massacre nothing has been revealed so far.
Militant feminist on trial after 20 years on run
The feminist who fought sexism with fire bombs faces justice
He and his fellow fascists even admit this when they describe themselves as a "Third Position" between the Communists/Socialists on the one hand and the Conservatives/Christian Democrats on the other.
Thanks for the ping. I remember the bombing case because it is cited in controversies over CIA activity in Italy. You have researched it more thoroughly than I have.
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