The Italian Jewish community and several leftist legislators have protested remarks by Rome's Mayor Gianni Alemanno that Fascism is not necessarily an "absolute evil." He made the comment to an Italian newspaper while visiting Jerusalem. "I don’t think so and I never thought it," he stated." Fascism was a more complex phenomenon.”
Alemanno is a former member of the neo-fascist Italian Social Movement MSI and later joined the conservative National Alliance. Protests against his statements include charges that the mayor was trying to ignore the alliance between World War II dictator Benito Mussolini and Nazi Germany. Mussolini removed Jews from public service and the school system, and nearly 6,000 died in Nazi death camps.