Galeazzo Bignami, a lawmaker of the rightist Brothers of Italy party who sparked outrage in 2016 after a newspaper published a picture of him wearing a Nazi swastika on his left arm, was named junior infrastructure minister on Monday.
Prime minister Giorgia Meloni, who personally announced Bignami's appointment at a news conference, is the leader of Brothers of Italy, a group which traces its roots to the post-fascist Italian Social Movement (MSI).
She did not comment on the 2016 photo. There was no immediate comment from her party's press office on the appointment.
Lui è il nuovo vice ministro delle Infrastrutture.
Si chiama Galeazzo #Bignami ed è un esponente di Fratelli d’Italia.
Uno scempio, un’offesa, un’indecenza verso la Costituzione, la memoria, la storia e le vittime di quella svastica.
Vergogna, @GiorgiaMeloni. pic.twitter.com/TGDZJfSQKx— Marco Furfaro (@marcofurfaro) October 31, 2022
Meloni has repeatedly condemned the infamous racist, anti-Jewish laws enacted by dictator Benito Mussolini in 1938 and last week told parliament she "never felt any sympathy for fascism".
"I have always considered the [anti-Semitic] racial laws of 1938 the lowest point of Italian history, a shame that will taint our people forever," she said in parliament.
When the pictures came out, Bignami (47) said he was wearing the red armband with the swastika as a joke and the pictures had been taken 10 years earlier, during his bachelor party.
Bignami, who was elected last month in parliament for a second term, has long been part of the Italian hard-right but has spent part of his political career in former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi's more moderate Forza Italia.
Bignami will serve under the right-wing League party leader Matteo Salvini, who is the infrastructure minister and deputy prime minister.
