“As a convinced anti-fascist, I apologize to all those who may have been offended by what I said, which in no way intends to justify or play down an antidemocratic and totalitarian regime,” the president, Antonio Tajani, said in a statement.
His apology followed a radio interview on Wednesday in which he appeared to offer justifications of Mussolini’s dictatorship.
“I’m not a fascist, I was never a fascist, and I don’t share his political convictions,” Tajani told Radio 24, an Italian broadcaster. “But we have to be honest: Mussolini built roads, bridges, buildings, sports facilities; he has developed many parts of our Italy.”
“Until he declared war on the whole world by following Hitler, until he became a promoter of the racial laws, apart from the dramatic Matteotti case,” Tajani added, “he did positive things.”
Giacomo Matteotti was a socialist politician who was murdered by fascists in 1924 for denouncing electoral fraud and violence.
Tajani’s comments came after a year of heightened debate about Mussolini’s legacy, 80 years after the fascist leader’s regime introduced Nazi-like anti-Semitic laws.
Fascination with Mussolini’s rise and regime seems to persist. A book about the dictator, called “M,” by Antonio Scurati, found a huge audience after it was published last year. Critics said the book resurrected the cult of the leader.
And “I’m Back,” a feature-length comedy that imagined Mussolini’s modern-day return to become a TV and YouTube sensation, caused a stir last year. (It was an adaptation of a German film, “Look Who’s Back,” which was based on a satirical novel in which Hitler reappears.)
Mussolini’s memory has also been summoned in the political arena. Matteo Salvini, Italy’s deputy prime minister and the leader of the right-wing League party, sometimes quotes from the dictator. Neo-fascist groups regularly hold marches across the country.
Tajani’s comments drew immediate criticism from Italy and across Europe. “Unbelievable quotes from Tajani on Mussolini,” Udo Bullmann, the leader of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament, wrote on Twitter. “How can a president of the European Parliament fail to acknowledge the nature of fascism?”
The National Association of Italian Partisans, an anti-fascist organization, issued a statement that drew attention to Mussolini’s crimes, for example in Ethiopia, “where entire innocent populations — children, women and men — were murdered with poison gas.”
The association said that Tajani’s original comments defending Mussolini’s legacy were “trite, superficial and typical of those who want to justify a regime like fascism” that propelled Italy into World War II “and caused millions of deaths.”
Tajani had initially defended his comments. “Shame on those who manipulate what I’ve allegedly said on fascism,” he said on Twitter on Wednesday, before changing course.
Tajani has made divisive comments about Italy’s wartime legacy before.
Last month, at a memorial service in Basovizza, Italy, he said “Long live Italian Istria and Italian Dalmatia.” Both of those regions have been territories of Italy at various times, including during World War II, but are today part of Croatia and Slovenia, where his comments prompted outrage and calls for Tajani to resign.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.