A demand by Italy's former royal family for compensation from the Italian state for their 56 years of forced exile was met with deep scorn on Wednesday by anti-Fascist and Jewish groups.
"We are astonished by the absurdity of this demand," said Massimo Rendina, head of Italy's largest anti-fascist association ANPI.
"The royal family benefited financially from the Fascist regime. Remember the harm Victor Emmanuel III did by signing laws against civil liberties to fight opponents of the regime, causing them moral and financial harm," Rendina said.
PHOTO: AP
"There were also racial laws [against Jews]. Without the king's signature, those laws could not have existed," he said.
Vittorio Emmanuel III, the grandfather of the current head of the House of Savoy, co-signed laws that allowed nearly 8,000 Italian Jews to be deported by the occupying German forces starting in 1943.
Vittorio Emanuele of Savoy, 70, grandson of the last king of Italy from 1900 to 1946, and his son Emanuele Filiberto, 35, lodged the demand for 260 million euros (US$385 million) plus interest on Tuesday.
They are also seeking the return of assets that were confiscated by the Italian state after their forced exile in 1946.
The property the Savoys are seeking "wasn't stolen, but seized under a law passed by the democratic Italian state," Rendina said, while dismissing the demand as "indecent."
Ricardo Pacifisti, spokesman of Rome's Jewish community, was equally indignant.
"Decency would demand that the royal family remain silent as a sign of respect for all Italians, including Jews," he said.
"If anyone has the right to damages plus interest, it's the former subjects of the royal house, and among them the Jewish citizens whose lives were shattered by the king's signature on the racial laws," Pacifisti said, noting in particular that Jewish professors and students were forced to leave universities.
The Union of Jewish Communities in Italy, the main Jewish group in the country, called the demands offensive "to the historical memory of Italy" in a statement.
Pino Sgobio of the Italian Communist Party called the request "a joke," adding that the royal family should reimburse Italy "for the moral and material damage inflicted on the Italian people."
The government reacted swiftly to the demand, rejecting it on Tuesday and saying the Italian state owed nothing to the former royal family but was now thinking of suing them for their responsibility over the racial laws.
Four people jailed in the landmark Hong Kong national security trial of "47 democrats" accused of conspiracy to commit subversion were freed today after more than four years behind bars, the second group to be released in a month. Among those freed was long-time political and LGBTQ activist Jimmy Sham (岑子杰), who also led one of Hong Kong’s largest pro-democracy groups, the Civil Human Rights Front, which disbanded in 2021. "Let me spend some time with my family," Sham said after arriving at his home in the Kowloon district of Jordan. "I don’t know how to plan ahead because, to me, it feels
‘A THREAT’: Guyanese President Irfan Ali called on Venezuela to follow international court rulings over the region, whose border Guyana says was ratified back in 1899 Misael Zapara said he would vote in Venezuela’s first elections yesterday for the territory of Essequibo, despite living more than 100km away from the oil-rich Guyana-administered region. Both countries lay claim to Essequibo, which makes up two-thirds of Guyana’s territory and is home to 125,000 of its 800,000 citizens. Guyana has administered the region for decades. The centuries-old dispute has intensified since ExxonMobil discovered massive offshore oil deposits a decade ago, giving Guyana the largest crude oil reserves per capita in the world. Venezuela would elect a governor, eight National Assembly deputies and regional councilors in a newly created constituency for the 160,000
North Korea has detained another official over last week’s failed launch of a warship, which damaged the naval destroyer, state media reported yesterday. Pyongyang announced “a serious accident” at Wednesday last week’s launch ceremony, which crushed sections of the bottom of the new destroyer. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un called the mishap a “criminal act caused by absolute carelessness.” Ri Hyong-son, vice department director of the Munitions Industry Department of the Party Central Committee, was summoned and detained on Sunday, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported. He was “greatly responsible for the occurrence of the serious accident,” it said. Ri is the fourth person
At a calligraphy class in Hanoi, Hoang Thi Thanh Huyen slides her brush across the page to form the letters and tonal marks of Vietnam’s unique modern script, in part a legacy of French colonial rule. The history of romanized Vietnamese, or Quoc Ngu, links the arrival of the first Christian missionaries, colonization by the French and the rise to power of the Communist Party of Vietnam. It is now reflected in the country’s “bamboo diplomacy” approach of seeking strength through flexibility, or looking to stay on good terms with the world’s major powers. A month after Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) visited,