Italian Police break up neo-Nazi group, arrest at least 12 people
Deutsche Presse-Agentur (DPA) reports that Italian police have arrested at least 12 people during a raid against a group of neo-Nazis. The statewide raid against a group calling itself Werwolf Division involved security forces searching dozens of apartments, the prosecutor's office in Bologna said.
There is a distinctive right-wing scene in Bologna, in the north of Italy, as well as in other parts of the country. Those arrested have now been charged with membership in a terrorist organization; propaganda; Holocaust denial; inciting the commission of crimes motivated by ethnic, racial or religious discrimination; and firearms possession.
The group has been striving to create an ethnically pure authoritarian state, including by planning violent actions against highly-placed members of institutions, investigators said. Police are investigating 25 people between the ages of 19 and 76.
DPA reports that the group’s name refers to the Nazi plan called Werwolf, established during the final months of the Second World War to perform sabotage and wage guerilla war against the Allies. In Italy, the right-wing Government of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is now in power, whose nationalist party Fratelli d’Italia (Brothers of Italy) is usually labeled “post-Fascist”.
