(ANSA) - Premier Silvio Berlusconi today firmly denied charges of anti-Semitism levelled at his party after a Forza Italia member suggested Bank of Italy Governor Antonio Fazio was the victim of a "Jewish, masonic" plot.
Responding to an article in the Corriere della Sera daily, Berlusconi issued a statement saying that "Forza Italia has always condemned and will continue to do so even the slightest involuntary remark which stirs up echoes and ghosts of a monstrous past."
"Forza Italia publicly apologises to those who might have been offended by such remarks, at the same time stressing that no-one can doubt the party's liberal nature and that it is the enemy of all forms of intolerance," the centre-right leader said.
He concluded by saying that Corriere, Italy's biggest-selling daily, had launched a "totally untenable accusation against a party, a coalition and a government which are proud to be the best friends of Israel."
The premier was referring to a front-page editorial in Monday's edition of Corriere which highlighted comments made last week by Forza Italia credit expert Guido Crosetto. Speaking last Friday in defence of Fazio, who is under pressure to resign over a takeover scandal, the Forza Italia
MP said that "what's behind this Fazio business is not a moral judgement of the governor but a bid to attack the Italian banking system and open up its doors."
Crosetto said the "liquidity of Italian banks is tempting to a lot of people, above all the great Jewish and American Freemasons who are already at the doors." When asked to elaborate, Crosetto responded by citing Merrill Lynch, which he described as "an unusual banking institute, whose shareholders are... specifically Jewish".
Corriere della Sera editorialist Gianni Riotta condemned Crosetto's comments, saying they "recalled the anti-Semitic propaganda in Germany and Italy between the wars."
"It is with bitterness that one must note the complete indifference with which the government, the majority, Forza Italia, the newspapers and TV channels which support the premier, institutional figures and the intellectual world on the centre right received Crosetto's comments," Riotta added.
"Perhaps there is a wish to silently pass over this attack on the Jews but this would be a serious mistake which risks leading to open complicity. There must be a clear and immediate moral distancing (from Crosetto's comments). If not now, then when?", Riotta concluded, echoing with his final phrase the title of a celebrated 1982 novel by Italian Holocaust survivor Primo Levi.
Italy's Jewish community also condemned Crosetto's remarks.
Swiftly reacting to the MP's speech, community chief Amos Luzzatto said last week that "I don't know exactly what legal and financial problems have brought about the Bank of Italy crisis but I would never have thought that once again, with words reminiscent of the 1930s, the causes would be sought in a murky plot by 'masons and Jews'."
"I hope that this type of language does not mask a world view which has caused enough grief and tragedy in the recent past," Luzzatto said.
