The hands of Italian history have turned back again. Despite the constant alarms about the return of fascism, the darkness of the Years of Lead is forcefully reappearing in the Italian political landscape. The proscription lists drawn up by the (new) Communist Party against “pro-Zionist” politicians, journalists and exponents of the world of culture fundamentally demonstrate two truths that are unspeakable for the left.

The lists of Zionists, like the Red Brigades

The first is that anti-Semitism is spreading also and above all among the “kompagni” and, secondly, that the Red Brigades continue to reap proselytes. The threats to journalists of the main center-right newspapers such as Alessandro Sallusti, Augusto Minzolini, Maurizio Belpietro and Daniele Capezzone seem to anticipate the ‘crippled knees’ of which Indro Montanelli was a victim in the 1970s.

The new communists also targeted journalists close to the centre-left, such as the director of La Stampa Maurizio Molinari and the editorialist Paolo Mieli, and in this case, the memory goes to Walter Tobagi, a Catholic and socialist journalist killed in 1980 by left-wing extremists.

Should we be afraid of a chef?

The harsh and crude truth that is often hidden is that left-wing extremism has struck not only in the Years of Lead, but also in the new millennium. The assassinations of labor lawyers Massimo D’Antona and Marco Biagi date back, in fact, to 1999 and 2002 respectively. In practice, the day before yesterday. Of course, tiny parties like the (new) Communist Party or the Carc, the party of the Committees of Support for the Resistance for Communism, whose main exponent from the so-called civil society is Chef Rubio, should not frighten. At least, in theory.

In practice, anti-Semitism does not only concern the far left, but in a more subtle way also the more moderate center-left. Elly Schlein’s silence on the whole affair is quite disturbing.

Given that any type of extremism is to be condemned, this deafening silence of the secretary of the Democratic Party clashes with the uproar enacted, even at a European level, against a hundred nostalgic neo-fascists who gave the Roman salute in memory of the victims of the Acca Larentia massacre. In this case we are not faced with the celebration, more or less questionable, of political exponents of the 70s nor with folklore manifestations like those seen in the Fanpage videos.

The words uttered by the boys of the ‘Melonian Youth’ are words. Reprehensible, but still words and not targeted threats aimed at hitting public figures as in the case of the proscription lists of the new communists. But not only that. Fratelli d’Italia immediately condemned the anti-Semitic phrases uttered by the boys of the National Youth, while silence prevailed on the part of the Italian center-left and personalities such as Roberto Saviano or Michele Santoro.

Even dismissing the matter by simply claiming that the Democratic Party has nothing to do with these left-wing groups is far too convenient and not even entirely true. Hatred or aversion towards Israel is independent of whether Netanyahu is prime minister or not. Hypocrisy aside, even a socialist exponent would not have behaved much differently from him since as of October 7, too many Israelis are still in the hands of Hamas.

The distinction between anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism no longer holds up and resembles a huge fig leaf good only for covering appearances. The Democratic Party and the center-left are asked to distance themselves from both.