A satirical cartoon in last Friday’s il manifesto, by one of Italy’s leading cartoonists Vauro, has caused something of an international incident – no mean feat, given the general apathy towards the Italian election campaign both at home and abroad.

The cartoon, which pictures a loosely disguised Fiamma Nirenstein, a journalist and commentator running as a candidate for Berlusconi’s Pdl party, as an electoral monster ‘Fiamma Frankenstein’, has been accused by both Nirenstein and the American Anti-Defamation League of being anti-semitic. The ADL called on the communist newspaper to apologise for the publication of the cartoon, which depicted a monstrous Nirenstein with a star of David, a Pdl logo, and the fascio littorale – the original symbol of Mussolini’s fascists – on her chest.

The ADL commented:
“Whether intentional or not, the clear effect of the cartoon was to associate Jews with the Fascists who persecuted them, denigrate the PdL by associating it with Jews, and highlight the presence of an Italian Jew on the PdL electoral list. In any case, the result is the same: anti-Semitism.”

the cartoon is an uncomfortable one, partly for the reasons outlined by the ADL. To place the star of David alongside the Fascio Littorale is disturbing – and was, no doubt intentionally so. The suggestion, though, that the cartoon is anti-semitic falls down upon close examination.

The accusation that the cartoon attempts to denigrate the Pdl by highlighting that a Jew is on their electoral list is not supported by any particular evidence. What the ADL leave out of their accusation is the hugely important fact that inspired the cartoon – namely that Berlusconi’s party, the Pdl has grouped together in its electoral list not just the post-fascist Alleanza Nazionale party, and Alessandra Mussolini (as proud as ever of her Grandfather, and happy to tell anyone prepared to listen of the fact), but also the ‘proud fascist’ Giuseppe Ciarrapico – who holds, amongst his wide business interests, a publishing house specialising in fascist and revisionist history.

Vauro’s cartoon is certainly unpleasant, but it serves a purpose that is anything but anti-semitic. It highlights a disturbing alliance – and one that the ADL should be at pains to point out, namely a mainstream European political party that, for electoral gains, is flirting dangerously with its fascist past. It’s not the first time, either, that Berlusconi has aligned himself with the fascists. This modern statesman, who has been honoured by the ADL, despite the fact that he has described Mussolini as ‘benign’, and referred to people having been sent ‘on holiday to internal exile’. A view of history that ignores the political repression, the introduction of racial laws, and ultimately the collusion of Mussolini’s fascist government with the Holocaust.

The cartoon representaion of Fiamma Nirenstein is offensive, but her remaining in the Pdl alongside Fascist apologists is far more so.