Reorganization of the dissolved Fascist Party into two forms: participation in "usual fascist demonstrations" and the "squadrista method as a tool for political participation": these are the two articles of the 1952 Scelba law, 1 and 5, for which 12 Apulian CasaPound militants were convicted by the Court of Bari, the first time in Italy, with the consequent deprivation of political rights for five years.
The ruling reignites the debate on the far-right movement, with the opposition demanding an urgent briefing from Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi. The Democratic Party, Five Star Movement, and AVS have unanimously called for the dissolution of CasaPound and the evacuation of the occupied building in Rome.
"Now that there's a ruling that establishes it," says Democratic Party secretary Elly Schlein, "the government has no choice but to do what we've been asking of it for a long time: dissolve Casapound, dissolve the neo-fascist organizations as provided for by our Constitution."
The trial concerns the September 21, 2018, attack in the Libertà neighborhood of Bari on anti-fascist protesters returning from a march against the immigration policies of then-Interior Minister Matteo Salvini. Seven of the 12 convicted defendants were also held responsible for the injuries. They were, therefore, the actual perpetrators of the beating. The first five received one year and six months in prison, and the other seven received two years and six months. The Court, presided over by Ambrogio Marrone, ruled out the aggravating circumstance of premeditation for all of them and acquitted the other five defendants, who were charged with violating the Scelba law "for not having committed the crime."
The defendants were also ordered to compensate the civil parties: the victims of the attack (then-MEP Eleonora Forenza of the Communist Refoundation Party and her assistant Antonio Perillo; Giacomo Petrelli of the Communist Alternative; and Claudio Riccio of the Italian Left), the National Association of Italian Partisans (ANPI), the Communist Refoundation Party, the Municipality of Bari, and the Puglia Region.
