The mass at the Bergamo cemetery, in suffrage of the fallen of the Italian Social Republic (RSI), it will do. It will be tomorrow (April 20, 2024), at 10.30. It was the families of the fallen who asked permission from the Municipality of Bergamo, but the council had decided to submit the request to the provincial Committee for public order and safety. «The celebration – explains the commander of the local police of Bergamo, Gabriella Messina – was authorized, as there are no contrary elements». No particular instructions were given to those who made the request. But from now on, when a group asks to organize an initiative at the cemetery will have to sign a declaration of anti-fascism and adherence to the principles enshrined in the Constitution.
The case emerged in recent days in the commission at Palazzo Frizzoni, during the discussion on the changes to the Cemetery Services Regulations. The advisor of the Brothers of Italy had intervened, Philip Bianchi, to inform the councilor that for a few days the families of the RSI fallen had been waiting for the green light to be able to celebrate a mass in remembrance of their deceased. “The request was forwarded by the council to the Committee for public order and safety”, explained Angeloni.
This evening the regulation on the functioning of the cemetery will arrive in the city council (but due to time constraints the discussion could be postponed to Monday). The text, already approved by the commission, will be amended. Councilor Oriana Ruzzini, of Ambiente Partecipazione Futuro, will present the amendment (it was she who raised the topic in the commission). «The amendment – explains the councilor – will ask that in compliance with the principles of freedom, equality and tolerance and pursuant to the Mancino Law of 1993, initiatives which incite discrimination or violence, in particular for racial, ethnic, gender, national or religious reasons, or which have among their aims the apology of fascism or Nazism, are not authorised. Applicants (or their legal representatives) will be required to sign a declaration when requesting authorization for the event otherwise the request will not be accepted.” The proposal arose from the fact that this declaration is already asked of those who want to use a municipal hall and also of those who ask to install gazebos for electoral propaganda. «In the Cemetery Services Regulation – explains councilor Giacomo Angeloni – there was already a reference to the fact that the authorized initiatives to be carried out within the cemetery had to respect the Mancino Law and not be discriminatory, but the reference to the declaration to be signed was missing and we will insert it with the amendment».
Councilor Ruzzini also shifts attention to another aspect: «I believe that this declaration endorses the values of anti-fascism and the Constitution it should be requested by all institutions, even supra-municipal ones. It happens that public space is occupied by gazebos of Casa Pound, Forza Nuova or neo-fascist parties in a manner that in my opinion and according to the law is totally illegitimateafter they have received the green light from other supra-municipal bodies, other than the Municipality, which grant the use of public space”.
