The devolutionist Northern League will apparently never forgive Giuseppe Garibaldi for his role in uniting Italy over 150 years ago.
On Tuesday, its disrupted a conference in parliament commemorating the bicentennial of the birth of the 'Hero of Two Worlds'.
House Speaker Fausto Bertinotti had just finished opening the seminar when a dozen or so League MPs burst into a conference hall shouting slogans and carrying a banner which proclaimed "Free Padania".
Padania is the area in northern Italy which the League believes should be separated from Rome, on much the same way as Catalonia is from Madrid, because of its 'ethnic' roots and economic position.
After breaking into the hall, the League MPs handed out leaflets with Garibaldi's photo under the heading 'Hero of Two Worlds' to which was added: "What hero? Remove his statues from public squares".
Garibaldi is called the 'Hero of Two Worlds' for battling for independence in Italy and Latin America in the mid-19th century.
In an impromptu speech, League deputy House whip Andrea Gibelli said: "This seminar is celebrating an historic falsehood! Public funds are being used to commemorate a traitor, a mason, a mercenary, an enemy of the Church, a criminal who wherever he went sowed death and destruction!".
League MP Roberto Cova added "a one-way history has made a hero out of someone who was not a hero and who today is being commemorated with a conference in which all sides are not being told. This the reason for our peaceful demonstration!".
Another League MP, Federico Bricolo, demanded that Bertinotti moderate as "counter-seminar" on Garibaldi to demonstrate how he was "someone who betrayed his people, an enemy of the Church who went so far as to define Pope Pius IX a 'square meter of sewage', slave trader, a fraud who by his actions had Italy annexed by Savoy".
"He was even a horse thief and a war criminal who ordered his troops to sack and pillage. Once the truth is known about Garibaldi people will understand that it would be better to forget him than remember him," Bricolo concluded.
Bertinotti responded to the League protest by observing "one is free to take part in an historical discussion or not to. But to do so in such a provocative manner is unpleasant".
Other MPs attending the conference were harsher with the League.
Italy of Values MP Silvana Mura observed that "actions like these speak for themselves. They are the consequence of cultural poverty and a dire need for visibility".
"It is obvious that these people cannot tell the difference between a scholarly discussion and a bragging session in which whoever tells the biggest lie gets the greatest applause".
