Word: fini
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Gianfranco Fini, the president of the Italian Parliament, is facing a firestorm of controversy after saying that the May 1 burning of Israeli flags in Turin by far-left protesters was "much more serious" than the savage beating of a 29-year-old that same day in Verona by a neo-Nazi gang. The victim of the beating, Nicola Tommasoli, died late Monday after several days in a coma. Five young fans of the Verona soccer team have been arrested for the murder...
...Comparing two such crimes on a television talk show would be fraught with trouble for anyone, but perhaps for no one as much as Fini, 56, whose rise from leader of a small post-fascist party to public respectability has been one of the most stunning political transformations in postwar European history...
...fulfill his big ambitions, Fini understood in the early 1990s that he had to distance himself from his past. Eventually, he came to believe that the shortest path from marginal Mussolini nostalgic to mainstream political power was unwavering support for the state of Israel. The decisive moment came when Fini traveled to Israel in November 2003, declaring his affection for the Jewish state and his "shame" for Italy's racial laws under fascism. The following year, Silvio Berlusconi made him foreign minister, where the longtime leader of the National Alliance party stood out amongst his European partners...
...With Berlusconi's return to power last month, and Fini's own protégé, Gianni Alemanno sweeping to victory in the race for Rome Mayor, Fini was sworn in last week at the helm of the Italian Parliament, hoping his extremist past was definitively behind him. But now, Fini is again on the spot over fascism, a victim of his own zeal to defend Israel...
...Fini's comments were quickly criticized by his center-left opponents. Former Social Affairs Minister Paolo Ferrero called them "incredible and unworthy of someone holding such an important institutional role." Having earlier criticized the flag burning in his city, Turin Mayor Sergio Chiamparino said Fini's "ranking of ignoble acts" was a serious mistake. "You end up justifying what cannot be justified...