February 21, 2006
An Italian Jewish leader has urged Jews in his country not to vote for Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s coalition because it embraced two small far-right parties which he called neo-fascist. "A Jew who votes for an alliance with these people would vote against himself, against the history of the offenses suffered by all Europe in the last century, against the principles of freedom and democracy,” said Emanuele Fiano, a leader of the Democratic Left Party. Fiano is a former president of Milan's Jewish community and on the board of the Union of Italian Jewish Communities. Berlusconi’s “House of Freedoms” coalition has forged alliances with the Social Alternative, a far-right party led by the granddaughter of fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, and the Tricolor Flame, a far-right party rooted in neo-fascism. Italians go to the polls in a hotly contested general election in April. Berlusconi has been a strong backer of Israel during his tenure.
