Galeazzo Bignami, a lawmaker from the far-right "Brothers of Italy" Party, who caused an uproar in 2016 after a newspaper published a photo of him wearing a swastika emblem on his left arm, has been appointed junior infrastructure minister in Giorgia Meloni's new government, according to a statement made on Monday.
Bignami was elected last month to a second term in parliament. For years, he has been an integral part of the Italian far Right, but was a member of former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia Party, which is considered more moderately right-wing.
He said in a statement on Monday that he felt "profound shame" for the pictures and firmly condemned "any form of totalitarianism," calling Nazism and any movement connected to it "the absolute evil."
Meloni did not comment on the 2016 photo but repeatedly condemned the infamous racist, anti-Jewish laws enacted by dictator Benito Mussolini in 1938, telling parliament last week that she "never felt any sympathy for fascism."
"I have always considered the [antisemitic] racial laws of 1938 the lowest point of Italian history, a shame that will taint our people forever," she said in parliament.
Galeazzo Bignami, nuevo secretario de Estado de Infraestructuras en el Gobierno italiano. Pero Meloni no es fascista, no. pic.twitter.com/xHlki6DWDY
— Idafe Martín Pérez ✨✍️ (@IdafeMartin) October 31, 2022
Giorgia Meloni's new government
Bignami will serve under right-wing League Party leader Matteo Salvini, who is the infrastructure minister and deputy prime minister.
Last month, a politician from the "Brothers of Italy," recruited from fascist Morbilia, was elected Speaker of the Upper House of Parliament, during the formation of the most right-wing government in Italy since World War II.
Ignazio La Rossa, the former defense minister whose father was secretary of the fascist party led by Mussolini, founded the Brothers of Italy with Maloney.