Weeks before the close of his centenary year, Giacomo Matteotti has suffered a fresh outrage on Rome’s Lungotevere Arnaldo da Brescia. Unknown vandals have damaged the monument to the Socialist deputy, murdered by a fascist squad on June 10, 1924, shattering two commemorative plaques. Particularly targeted was the 1999 anniversary plaque bearing the inscription: “Kill me, but do not kill my idea.”
Political condemnation has been swift and cross-partisan, starting with the government. However, Matteotti’s granddaughter, Elena Matteotti, called out Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s silence: “It would be the least she could do, her duty. But she would have to go against many things,” she stated.
Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani (Forza Italia) was among the first to react, expressing “outrage”: “Damaging the plaque of an Italian who fell for the freedom of all of us is a serious act,” Tajani declared. “An attack on his memory which we have an obligation to condemn.” Culture Minister Alessandro Giuli visited the site, bowed before the stele, dusted it off, and kissed it with his hand. “Isn’t this the first time it’s happened?” he asked cameras. “It should be the last.”
Within the centre-right coalition, Senate President Ignazio La Russa condemned the “unacceptable and cowardly gesture that strikes one who paid with his life for defending his ideological and political convictions,” while Chamber of Deputies President Lorenzo Fontana recalled how Matteotti’s memory “is alive in Montecitorio and symbolically represented by the seat reserved for him last year” – the seat from which, on May 30, 1924, Matteotti denounced fascist violence and electoral fraud.
The centre-left expressed shared outrage. A PD delegation led by secretary Elly Schlein laid red roses at the monument. “The damage to the plaque by fascist hands,” Schlein commented, “is an extremely grave act and an insult to the memory of a person who paid with his life for fighting for freedom.” Five Star Movement leader Giuseppe Conte called it “an insult to collective memory, our values, the hard fight waged against fascism to affirm those same principles of freedom in whose name Matteotti himself paid with his life.”
Matteotti’s granddaughter emphasized these enduring values: “Fascism never died,” Elena Matteotti asserted. “I am in shock, but at the same time, I expected it. I hope this will truly shake public opinion, the government, and the Prime Minister. Matteotti’s figure disturbs because it confronts us all with the truth, and the truth is disturbing.” The National Partisan Association (ANPI) concurred: “It is not the first time Matteotti’s memory has been desecrated. His immense political stature and his exemplary moral integrity still throw wretched fascists into panic and discredit today.”
Meanwhile, PD Mayor Roberto Gualtieri and Culture Councillor Massimiliano Smeriglio have instructed the Superintendency to restore the monument. The vandals remain unidentified. Carabinieri investigating are determining whether the defacement, discovered around 7 AM, was a targeted act or random vandalism. No tools used to break the plaques were found, leading investigators to review footage from nearby cameras. The party Azione, whose leader Carlo Calenda held a vigil at the site, called for dedicated surveillance, proposing a specific allocation for it in the city assembly.
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