Fascist salute

Italy

The salute has been used many times by prominent individuals as well as groups of people since the war. Famed poet Ezra Pound used the salute in praise of his adopted country of Italy when he returned in 1958 after being released from an insane asylum in the United States. The salute was on display in the 1968 funeral for Mussolini's youngest daughter, Anna Maria Mussolini Negri. When the Italian Social Movement had its greatest electoral gains since the Second World War in June 1971, crowds at the party headquarters cheered and gave the outstretched arm salute. On July 29, 1983, on the 100th anniversary of Mussolini's birth, thousands of black-shirted supporters chanted "Duce! Duce!" with their arms raised in the fascist salute on a march from his native village of Predappio in Romagna to the cemetery where he was buried. On the eve of Silvio Berlusconi's election victory in 1994, young supporters of Gianfranco Fini made the fascist salute while chanting "Duce! Duce!"