ROME — Former Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi praised Benito Mussolini for having “done good” despite the Fascist dictator’s anti-Jewish laws, sparking outrage as Europe yesterday held Holocaust remembrances.
He also defended Mussolini for allying with Hitler.
“Certainly, the government then, fearing that German power would turn into a general victory, preferred to be allied with Hitler’s Germany rather than oppose it,” he told reporters at a Holocaust ceremony in Milan.
He added, “The racial laws are the worst fault of Mussolini, who, in so many other aspects, did good.”