the privileged point of contact; each side sought
recognition of its legitimacy from the other in order
to cement the new bipolar political structure born
in the 1990s in which these two parties took centre
stage after being excluding from government under
the First Republic.
One of the leading promoters of the move to
reconcile the “opposing memories” was the ex-
magistrate and member of parliament for the PDS,
Luciano Violante, who, as President of the Chamber
of Deputies, engaged in a close dialogue with Fini
on the subjects of the foibe and the “boys of Salò”.
The compromise between the two political leaders
was cemented on the controversial memory of the
foibe, as evidenced by the DS’s support for the
establishment of the Day of Remembrance in 2004
and the decision of many left-wing local councils to
name streets and squares after the martyrs. Rather
than proposing its “critical” version of this memory,
the left has accepted the strong nationalist version
favoured by the right wing describing the Italians
of the foibe as the “innocent victims” of a frantic
“ethnic cleansing” and thus absolving the Fascist
regime of its guilt.
The search for a political compromise also
underpinned the legislation of July 2000, which
introduced the Day of Remembrance in memory
of the Holocaust on 27 January. This is the most
important of the commemorations recently
established in the country. Promoted by the left
to remember “the Italian persecution of Jewish
citizens” and other victims of deportation, the law
never uses the word “Fascism”. Among its purposes
it includes the recognition of the aid given to the
Jews by the Italians of all political persuasions.
The commemoration of those who helped the
victims of persecution was also one of the aims of
the declaration of the 2000 Stockholm International
Forum on the Holocaust. In Italy, however, the
commemoration has had significant consequences.
Among the many tributes held since January 2001
dedicated to the memory of the Jews persecuted by
the Nazis and the Fascists and of the deportation
of Italian military and politicians to German
Giorgio Perlasca bust in Budapest | Hollósy József via Hungar-
ian Wikipedia
concentration camps, there is a clear tendency
EUROPE INSIGHT
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