A unanimous vote, no hesitation. Riva del Garda writes a page of historical and civil clarity worth recounting.
There are places that know how to look at the past without fear. Riva del Garda is one of them. The Municipal Council of the city on Lake Garda voted unanimously – all 19 councillors present – to revoke the honorary citizenship conferred upon Benito Mussolini on May 24, 1924. A symbolic act, certainly, but also a deeply political one, in the noblest sense of the term.
“A strong signal that benefits democratic sensibilities,” declared Mayor Alessio Zanoni. Measured words, but weighty ones.
A Citizenship Born in the Shadows
The history of that citizenship is emblematic. It was conferred by an extraordinary commissioner – not by an elected assembly – based on a prefectural circular, on the occasion of the celebrations for Italy’s entry into World War I. An act imposed from above, orchestrated in the rhetorical climate of the nascent regime, which remained buried in the archives for over a century.
“The conferment took place in an orchestrated context, which is why the document remained unknown in the archives for 102 years,” Zanoni explained. It was not the voice of the people of Riva: in the elections of April 6 of that same year, the socialist, popular, republican, and communist parties had gathered 56% of the votes in the Veneto College, compared to the 60% national share for fascism. A city that, numerically, was not fascist.
A Vote That Unites, Not Divides
What is striking about this matter is the unanimity. Majority and opposition, side by side, without distinction. The resolution was prepared by the Executive Board – Mayor Zanoni, Deputy Mayor Barbara Angelini, councillors Gabriele Bertoldi, Mario Caproni, Livia Ferrario, and Stefania Pellegrini – but shared with all the council groups, because, as the mayor himself emphasized, “all parties are within the Constitution, and the Charter is contrary to the reasons that led to the assignment.”
A Moral Heritage to Safeguard
The revocation is not an isolated gesture: it is the recognition that the honorary citizenships of Riva del Garda tell a story to be proud of. The first, in 1921, to Lieutenant Giuseppe Orlando, who liberated the city square at the end of the Great War. Then, in 1928, to Lieutenant Gennaro Sora of the Alpini, protagonist of Umberto Nobile's rescue expedition to the North Pole. In 1945 to the American general who entered the Busa. In 1966 to Gianfranco Fedrigoni of Cartiere. In 2004 to Ingrid Betancourt. In 2008 to Friedrich Karl Eichholz, creator of Expo Riva Schuh. In 2019 to Georg Stolle, former mayor of Bensheim, a twin city. In 2021 to the Unknown Soldier. And finally, to Liliana Segre.
Keeping Mussolini on that list was simply incompatible. “There is a moral heritage that must not be lost,” said Zanoni. “A decision to remember the value of the martyrs massacred in 1944, for the resistance and for the democratic struggle. A way to protect the associations and the memory of the direct witnesses who are no longer with us.”
Riva del Garda has chosen which side to be on. And it did so unanimously.
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