Maxicille Maxi Seizure Blitz Police Fascism Fascists Nazism Mussolini

More than one hundred weapons and other objects seized today in Siena, Sovicille, Colle and Poggibonsi. Guns, rifles, collectibles, fascist and Nazi symbols, but also a similar Molotov cocktail made with a bottle, a rocket launcher, an ax, various swords and much more. In addition to this, also explosive material. The operation of the State Police of Florence and Siena, coordinated by the Public Prosecutor's Office, appears as the beginning of a very large and complex situation.

The people at the center of the searches are twelve, all belonging to right-wing extremism, investigated for illegal possession of weapons related to the establishment of an association with a subversive purpose. Two of them, Andrea Chesi and their son Yuri Chesi, were arrested for illegal possession of explosives. The man is a 60 year old from Sovicille, known to the news for having marched on board his military sidecar of the SS in Siena two years ago, which on Facebook claims to be the secretary of the Sienese federation of the Social Idea Movement. He also has a YouTube channel where he shows his collectibles. Besides them, the investigation also involves the wife of 52 years.

To start all this, some intercepted conversations, as well as suspicious phrases on social networks, with clear references to Mussolini. According to Il Corriere Fiorentino, one of the objectives would have been the Colle di Val d'Elsa Mosque, news reported also by other newspapers.

"At the moment we have no evidence of correlations with existing far-right political groups," said the Chief Prosecutor of Florence and the District Anti-Mafia Directorate Giuseppe Creazzo. "It is the first act of an investigation to be developed."

"Beyond the applause to the police, whom I thank for the operation they are carrying out, there is obviously a deep concern – the first citizen of Sovicille Giuseppe Gugliotti told us -. In addition to being very bitter, there is also a really big concern, because the episode should not be declassified to the simple eccentricity of a particular character. It is an episode that is part of a network, the tip of the iceberg of a feeling that is unfortunately spreading. There is no wonder too, when the broth of culture is this feeling of hatred, of racist attitudes. When all this is fed and relaunched without any responsibility, without weighing the words that are being used, the barbarization of language and the approach to others, when someone clears certain messages from the political point of view, others consider it legitimate to move to practice ».

"No matter how much we knew about the passion for weapons and ideas," he added, referring to Andrea Chesi, "nothing foreshadowed a collection of this kind, but above all of the organization that in the mind was probably aimed at something. The investigations will tell us better. I am convinced that these episodes should not be underestimated. We must watch. "

Alessandra Angioletti

Published 12 November 2019