An italian Holocaust survivor raised the spectre of dictator Benito Mussolini and dangers posed by fascism as she presided over the opening of the country’s new parliament last week.

Liliana Segre, 92, a senator-for-life and the only member of her Jewish family to survive Auschwitz, spoke about the “symbolic” value of her role in this new chapter for Italy following an election that produced Italy’s most right-wing government since 1945.

“Today, I am particularly moved by the role that fate holds for me,” Ms Segre told the hushed chamber. “In this month of October, which marks the centenary of the March on Rome that began the fascist dictatorship [of Benito Mussolini], it falls to me to temporarily assume the presidency of this temple of democracy, which is the Senate of the Republic.

“It is impossible for me not to feel a kind of vertigo remembering that the same little girl who, on a day like this in 1938, disconsolate and lost, was forced by racist laws to leave her empty desk at primary school, is now, by a strange twist of fate, at the most prestigious desk in the senate.”

Italy’s centre-right coalition, led by the far-right Brothers of Italy, won a parliamentary majority of 44 per cent in the 25 September election.

Regarding the upcoming legislature, Ms Segre concluded by encouraging civilised debate that does not devolve into hate speech and respects the Italian constitution.

GettyImages-1243936792

Fascist heritage: La Russa

All 200 senators gave her a standing ovation, including Ignazio La Russa, the head of the Brothers of Italy delegation, who in 2018 proudly showed off his collection of Mussolini memorabilia in a video posted on the website of newspaper Corriere della Sera. He was subsequently elected Speaker in the Senate.

… as ‘Benito’ is elected Senate Speaker

IN what some have seen as a profound irony, Auschwitz survivor Liliana Segre also presided over the election of Ignazio Benito La Russa, who collects fascist memorabilia, as speaker of the Senate.

Mr La Russa, whose father was secretary of Benito Mussolini’s National Fascist Party, co-founded the hard-right Brothers of Italy alongside leader Giorgia Meloni in 2012.

A video has emerged of La Russa from 2018 showing off his personal home collection of fascist relics that included photos, medals and a statue of Mussolini.

Ms Meloni, who is set to become Italy’s new prime minister, has tried to distance her party from its well-documented neofascist roots, and last month said the party had “handed fascism to history decades ago”.

In a video that went viral last month, Mr La Russa’s younger brother, Romano, attended a funeral at which he appeared to give a Nazi-style salute. He denied he was performing the salute and has retained his seat in Lombardy council despite calls for his suspension. A Lombary press spokesman claimed he raised his arm in an effort to call on others “not to give the salute”.