“Meloni Youth” caught giving Nazi salute and chanting “Sieg Heil”

In a 12-minute clip, young people were secretly filmed making fascist gestures. In a scene that appears to have been filmed at a mountain retreat, young members are seen shouting “Sieg Heil, Sieg Heil.” We really are fascists.”

Political opponents demanded a response from Ms Meloni as she concluded the G7 summit in Puglia, but she has yet to comment.

His opponents decried it as proof that the political right is still haunted by its fascist past.

“The right can whitewash itself but it cannot hide anti-Semitism and racism,” Elly Schlein, head of the main opposition Democratic Party (PD), told television channel La7.

The PD, Five Star Movement and Green Left Alliance demanded an explanation in Parliament for what they called “incomprehensible silence” from the Prime Minister and her government over the investigation .

Ms Schlein said the prime minister could not deny the existence of fascism within his own party.

She pointed the finger at Ignazio La Russa, the president of the Senate, who openly admitted to having a bust of Benito Mussolini in his home.

Left-wing MP Nicola Fratoianni echoed his concerns. “The youth movement of the Prime Minister’s party feeds on fascist and Nazi ideological bullshit, which praises the Duce and shouts ‘Sieg Heil’,” he said.

“Dedicated activists”

But Italo Bocchino, a former right-wing MP and journalist, called the controversial report “rubbish” and described the National Youth as a community of committed and dedicated activists who have made an important contribution to democracy.

Ms Meloni once described Mussolini as “a good politician” and it is not the first time the Italian prime minister has been asked to distance himself from blatant displays of fascist behavior.

Italy’s opposition parties demanded the dissolution of far-right parties in January this year, after a video surfaced showing hundreds of men dressed in black making fascist salutes at a rally in Rome.

The rally was held in front of the former headquarters of the Italian Social Movement (MSI), a neo-fascist party that eventually morphed into the Conservative Brothers of Italy, co-founded by Ms. Meloni.

It took place on January 7 to mark the 46th anniversary of the Acca Larentia massacre, in which three young neofascist MSI activists were killed.

Italy’s postwar constitution forbids the reorganization of Mussolini’s dissolved Fascist Party, but far-right groups have been able to give their parties new names and claim to be new entities.