Roberto Fiore, the leader of Italy’s far-right party Forza Nuova, has written an open letter to Pope Leo XIV urging the pontiff to intervene in his appeal against a jail sentence for his part in the violent attack on the headquarters of Italy’s largest trade-union federation in 2021.
The 65-year-old fascist, who was sentenced at trial to eight years and six months in prison, claimed to be speaking “on behalf of the many men and women who protested against lockdowns and green passes or who tried in any way to avoid the vaccine.”
Plea for mercy
In his letter, published on the Fahrenheit 2022 website, Fiore accused the Italian state of acting as “an enforcer of unnatural and evil laws” during the pandemic and called on the Pope to intercede on his behalf with a plea for mercy.
“A single word from You, Your Holiness, can change the course of history,” he wrote, adding that “those who rebelled during the pandemic now risk years in prison, even ending their lives behind bars.”
Fiore, a veteran figure of Europe’s far-right scene, co-founded Forza Nuova in 1997. The party espouses ultranationalist and Catholic-traditionalist positions and has long been monitored by the Italian authorities for extremist activity.
Fiore previously spent many years on the runin the UK after being convicted of terrorist offences in absentia by Italian courts. He had been connected with the fascist terror group NAR, whose members carried out the Bologna station bombing in 1980 killing 85 people.
While in the UK he, and his now-dead NAR comrade Massimo Morsello, made millions from dodgy accommodation and employment agencies and used the money to launch FN when they returned to Italy on the expiry of their sentences.
On 9 October 2021, during widespread demonstrations in Rome against Italy’s Covid-19 “green pass” health certificate, a far-right march descended into violence.
Trade union HQ stormed
Protesters broke away from the main rally and stormed the headquarters of the General Confederation of Italian Workers (CGIL), Italy’s main trade union federation led by Maurizio Landini.
The attack caused extensive damage to the historic union building and shocked Italy. Prime Minister Mario Draghi at the time condemned the incident as an “attack on democracy,” and thousands subsequently marched in Rome in solidarity with the trade union movement.
Ringleaders
Fiore, along with another former NAR militant Luigi Aronica and Giuliano Castellino – a prominent Forza Nuova figure previously convicted for assaulting journalists – was identified as one of the ringleaders.
In December 2023 all three were convicted at trial, and sentenced to imprisonment. Fiore got eight and a half years.
The appeal process against the convictions opened several weeks ago, with the next hearing scheduled for 25 November. Fiore’s public plea to the Pope is a blatant attempt to solicit public sympathy.
Political violence
In his letter, Fiore depicted the events of 2021 as part of a broader struggle against “draconian laws” imposed during the pandemic, even likening restrictions on public worship to persecution.
“The people who rebelled then now ask you to intervene with faith and hope… to bring the Truth back to the world,” he concluded, omitting mention of the violent attack for which he was actually convicted.
The Vatican has not commented on Fiore’s appeal. The CGIL has maintained that the assault was an act of political violence and has urged the courts to uphold the original sentences.
