Leftist MEPs from Slovenia and Croatia are protesting an exhibition in the European Parliament (EP) to commemorate the victims of the Foibe massacres around the city of Trieste at the end of the Second World War—conducted by communist Yugoslav partisans.
The exhibition was presented to mark the 80th anniversary of the massacres which also saw its memorial site in Basovizza, Italy, vandalized by (presumably) Slovene perpetrators ahead of the official commemoration a few days ago.
Leftists expressed their “outrage” over the exhibition and demanded it be removed from the EP. It’s a display of double standards, in the spirit of ‘collective guilt’ that was so pervasive at the time. But since when did remembering innocent Italian civilians killed or deported in retribution for the crimes of Mussolini’s fascist regime undermine any legitimate struggle against totalitarianism?
In a letter sent to EP President Roberta Metsola, the Slovenian and Croatian members of the socialist S&D, the liberal Renew, and the Greens said the exhibition was distorting historical facts by blemishing the reputation of the Yugoslav partisan movement—and undermining the foundational value of today’s “free and sovereign Europe [which is] anti-fascism.”
The leftist MEPs not only said the exhibition was “extremely harmful” and “utterly outrageous,” but also claimed that the Italian delegation responsible for building it “evidently” intended it to “incite hatred” and subvert “the principles of the European community … rooted in victory over Nazi-fascism.”
MEP Carlo Fidanza, the Vice-President of the European Conservative and Reformist (ECR) party hit back at these accusations by saying the Left’s protest is “a dark moment” for the EP and reminded his colleagues that the exhibition’s inauguration ceremony focused on the importance of reconciliation.
Still, Fidanza said the letter was a “sad confirmation that some still refuse to acknowledge historical truth and honor the victims of Tito’s atrocities, even 80 years later.”
The controversy reveals the selective squeamishness of the Brussels Left about what constitutes an offensive exhibition. While it finds remembering innocent victims killed for their ethnicity problematic, this wasn’t the case two years ago when the EP displayed an openly anti-Christian exhibition made by a Swedish lesbian photographer.
These so-called artworks depicted Christ as homosexual men of various races, surrounded by disciples who look like they just arrived from a local Pride parade, intended to show that Jesus “supports gay rights.”
Conservative MEPs called out the apparent hypocrisy of such an exhibition, saying that the EP would never dare to host an artist who depicted Muhammed, never mind as gay. “Art? No, just vulgarity and disrespect,” said Spanish VOX MEP Jorge Buxadé.
