ITALY: GIANFRANCO FINI STARTS EUROPEAN TOUR скачать в хорошем качестве

ITALY: GIANFRANCO FINI STARTS EUROPEAN TOUR

(15 Feb 1995) Italian/Eng/Nat Italian right-wing leader Gianfranco Fini is in London at the start of a European tour, which he intends to show that his party has ditched its neo-fascist past. But not everyone is convinced - he was met by anti-Fascist demonstrators when he flew into London on Tuesday and members of the British parliament have protested about his visit. APTV has this profile of the controversial leader of Italy's National Alliance party. Gianfranco Fini, seen here in Rome on Monday (13 Feb), is the leader of Italy's once neo-fascist National Alliance party. His is a new party with an established reputation: fascism. On his current European tour Fini intends to prove that Italy's new right-wing party has left fascism behind. Before leaving for Britain Fini predicted that he faced a hostile reception. SOUNDBITE: (Italian) "I said earlier that we expect a demonstration in London, the motivation is that one must not allow a dangerous neo-nazi representative to speak, I believe Italians would start to laugh, but what can they do? SUPER CAPTION: Gianfranco Fini But critics of Fini's party may have been surprised. Dressed in a subdued suit and wearing gold-rimmed glasses, Fini hardly looks the part of a neo-fascist. His image cultivated with care. He has just as carefully led his party away from its fascist past. Today, the National Alliance is a rapidly growing conservative party. Fini spent decades working for the now-defunct Italian Social Movement- a neo-fascist party founded in 1946 by followers of fascist dictator Benito Mussolini. In 1993 Fini grabbed 47-percent of the vote in the Rome mayoral elections. It wasn't enough to win, but it was more than enough to be taken seriously. Then In 1994 Fini allied his party with media-magnate Silvio Berlusconi. When Berlusconi came to power he rewarded the party by selecting five members for his Cabinet. SOUNDBITE: (English) "He certainly needed the kind of legitimization, the post-fascists needed the so-called 2nd republic, or whatever. So his move, his joining with Berlusconi looked really good and really smart because Berlusconi assured to him the legitimization that he needed. SUPER CAPTION: Franco Pavoncello, Professor at John Cabot University, Rome Maintaining his hard-line supporters while his party changes has been tricky. He made headlines around the world by telling a reporter that Mussolini was Italy's "greatest statesman." He was forced to make a public apology after declaring the D-Day landings of American forces marked the day Europe lost its cultural identity. Nevertheless, Fini's personal popularity has soared. Not long after the elections a national poll found Fini more popular among Italian voters than Berlusconi. At a National Alliance Congress near Rome, his party severed all links to the neo- fascist Italian Social Movement. SOUNDBITE: (Italian) "To enter entirely without hatred, without divisions, without enemies into the 21st century that is at our doorstep. The National Alliance knows certainly how this century will be consigned irreversibly to history, all totalitarianism, all the ideology, all the hatreds, and the passions, and all the battles. SUPER CAPTION: Gianfranco Fini The social policies of the National Alliance sound similar to those of the Republican Party in the US. The National Alliance supports the death penalty, is anti-abortion and believes in tightening immigration controls. Fini is said to stand a good chance of winning big in Italy's next national elections. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter:   / ap_archive   Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​ Instagram:   / apnews   You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...