Cash to name babies for Mussolini

[HURAKAN]

Cash to name babies for Mussolini
By Duncan Kennedy
BBC News, Rome

A far-right Italian party is offering 1,500 euros ($1,900) to parents who name their children after the fascist dictator Mussolini or his wife.

The small Movimento Sociale-Fiamma Tricolore (MS-FT) party denies its gesture is racist and says the names Benito and Rachele are merely "nice".

The party also wants parents to buy cribs, clothes and food with the money.

The cash incentive is available in five areas of southern Italy and is designed to help the region's low birth rate.

Together the names Benito and Rachele mean only one thing to Italians - they signify their former dictator and his wife.

But the party says the choice of names is what it called "purely casual".

It says the move has no fascist or racist undertones, although it insists at least one parent is Italian.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/e ... 747169.stm

[Derek Ortt]

we need to end the political ban here so I could properly comment on this

lets just say, I do not oppose

[Ed Mahmoud]

People confuse fascist and racist. They often overlap, and Mussolini's invasion (and use of chemical weapons) of Ethiopia may have had racial overtones, but Mussolini never really joined in with his ally Adolf Hitler's attempted genocide of the Jews.


In theory, fascism owes as much to left wing ideology as right wing ideology, but like other -ism's that wind up with a central dominant figure controlling a one party state, like Hitler's national socialism, or Stalin's supposed communism, ideology takes a backseat to the dictator remaining in power.


On an unrelated note, there is a San Benito in South Texas.

[HURAKAN]

On an unrelated note, there is a San Benito in South Texas.

Very likely because of Benito Juárez, not Mussolini.

A question not answered in the article is that if the parents have to sign a contract and can't change the name afterwards.