ITALY: Neo-Nazi Party To Stage Public Burning Of LGBT Children's Books

Two days after a civil unions bill advanced in the Italian Senate, tomorrow Italy's neo-Nazi New Front Party will stage a public burning of LGBT children's books in Milan. Local progressives are demanding that city authorities step in to stop the event.

Members of the Democratic Party are outraged: "Burning books with a theme of homosexuality was a typical behavior of the Nazi regime. This horrendous return to the most terrible past must be censured and rejected with the greatest commitment. Milan is a noted city of the resistance and in the seventieth anniversary year of its liberation it cannot suffer such an outrage."

Another group is calling for a counter-protest: "We invite the citizens of Milan to come to Piazza Oberdan [tomorrow] with one of the books contained in the list in question or with books like those of Sappho, Tondelli or Oscar Wilde. Read them together with us." (Tipped by JMG reader Andrea)

RELATED: The New Front Party was formed in 1997 by members of a Nazi punk band. In the 2013 general election New Front candidates got nearly 200,000 votes but won zero seats in the national legislature. Among its stated objectives are the "humane repatriation" of immigrants, a ban on abortion, the abolition of capitalism, and "the recovery of Christian religiosity and faith in the Catholic Church."