Posted on 03/08/2022 12:19:19 PM PST by nickcarraway
In January 1937, the University of Lausanne (UNIL) awarded Benito Mussolini an honorary doctorate. A group of Vaud politicians on Tuesday called for the academic title to be revoked.
Mussolini was awarded the university honorary doctorate “for having conceived and realised in his homeland a social organisation which has enriched sociological science and which will leave a profound mark on history”. The award was made to coincide with the university’s 400th anniversary.
The academic title sparked criticism at the time - and continues to do so.
On Tuesday a leftwing group of politicians filed a motion in the Vaud parliament calling for the title to be officially revoked. The issue is set to be discussed next week.
Close ties to Vaud and Lausanne
Mussolini’s connection with Switzerland dates back to 1902 when he first travelled to the country as a young unemployed teacher looking for work. He survived as a labourer and frequented Socialist circles, where he began to get noticed as an orator and journalist.
In Lausanne he was arrested for vagrancy. Canton Bern also expelled him after inciting Italian workers to strike. The federal police kept an eye on him, considering him a dangerous agitator.
In 1904 he returned to Lausanne, where he enrolled at the university’s Faculty of Social and Political Sciences. He later returned to Italy in November of that year, thanks to an amnesty that prevented him being sentenced as a draft-dodger. Mussolini maintained close ties with canton Vaud and its capital, and with certain members of the Italian community.
"Regrettable"
The issue of the honorary doctorate is “regrettable” and creates “unease”, according to the new university rector, Frédéric Herman.
“All I would like to say is that UNIL's values are the opposite of fascism. What is important is to be able to look at your past. Like any institution, we are fallible, and in this case, we failed,” he told Swiss public radio RTS.
But the rector says withdrawing the award posthumously is complicated. The university has set up a group of internal experts to examine the question. It should complete its work by the spring in order to have a clear institutional position, says Herman.
Really? Can’t find anything more recent to be outraged over? For Pete’s sake in the US we even found a racist rock at a college to be kissed about. These guys need to try harder
I guess that Italian academia is as addicted to empty gestures as their American counterparts.
Ridiculous. What else are they going to do? Dig up Benito and scorn his corpse?
Wow take that Benito ! I bet he’s really pissed off now
Sure, NOW they get to the important stuff.
Hang it upside down in the town square?.............
There is only the leftist view and ideology.
Only the leftist view and ideologies must remain - all else must be buried and pilloried. Just like statues and other monuments.
I’m sure there’s lots of Mao and Stalin and Lenin honorary degrees that are STILL honored.
FDR based a lot of the New Deal on fascist economics.
I saw what you did there.
Oh boy. This is going to make a big difference. These idiots are like middle school morons.
It’s probably a little disjointed by now..................
I somehow doubt the government control part of fascism is opposite to their values.
Benito was unavailable for comment.
Was it an Honorary Doctorate in Dictatorship Sciences?
This is a Swiss school.
Ok. Swiss... Italian... Academics. All one big happy woke virtue signaling family.
Meanwhile the capital international airport in Mongolia, Genghis Khan airport, is named after their most famous tribal ancestor, Genghis Khan, one of the more productive historical genocidal figures. No cancel culture there. Leave poor Benito alone. Hè couldn’t hold a candle next to Genghis.
Swiss politicians not Italian academics.
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