Former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi triggered outrage in Italy today (January 27, 2013) with comments defending fascist wartime leader Benito Mussolini at a ceremony commemorating victims of the Nazi Holocaust, according to the Reuters website. Today is International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Speaking at the margins of the event in Milan, Berlusconi said Mussolini had been wrong to follow Nazi Germany's lead in passing anti-Jewish laws, but that he had in other respects been a "good leader."
"It's difficult now to put yourself in the shoes of people who were making decisions at that time," said Berlusconi, who is campaigning for next month's election at the head of a coalition that includes far-right politicians whose roots go back to Italy's old fascist party.
Berlusconi's comments overshadowed today's commemoration of thousands of Jews deported from Italy to Nazi death camps in eastern Europe during Mussolini's fascist rule in World War II. His comments were also condemned as "disgusting" by the center-left Democratic Party, which is leading in the polls ahead of the February 24-25 election.
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