Rome prosecutors have opened a probe
into a possible bid to recreate banned far-right subversive
group Avanguardia Nazionale (National Vanguard).
At least five people have been placed under investigation
including a former leader of the group, 72-year-old Vincenzo
Nardulli.
The investigation is into suspected subversive association and
propaganda, and instigation to race hatred.
Police have carried out several raids in the last few weeks,
judicial sources said.
The original National Vanguard was an extra-parliamentary
movement formed as a breakaway group from the Italian Social
Movement (MSI) by Stefano Delle Chiaie in 1960, initially based
around a group of youths recruited by the government to break up
leftist meetings.
The Vanguard rejected the parliamentary route of the Social
Movement, preferring instead to work outside the political
system to subvert democracy and bring about a return to fascism.
A leaflet produced by the group described them as in favour of
"man-to-man engagements" in which their members were to be
encouraged to be as ruthless as possible.
Members of the movement were frequently denounced as terrorists
and it was claimed that Della Chiaie had links to bomb making
concerns in Spain. The group also had close links with Ordine
Nuovo and other extremist groups. Vincenzo Vinciguerra was a
notorious member of the group. The group was adjudged
responsible for a series of bomb attacks in Italy in 1969, the
most notorious of which was the Piazza Fontana bombing.
The group also took a leading role in the abortive coup attempt
by Junio Valerio Borghese the following year.
Avanguardia Nazionale allegedly organized the assassination of
Italian magistrate Vittorio Occorsio, employing arms allegedly
supplied by the CIA via its contacts in Francoist Spain. For the
killing Pierluigi Concutelli is currently serving a life
sentence in Italy. Avanguardia Nazionale member Mario Ricci
participated in the 1978 assassination of José Miguel Beñaran
Ordeñana aka Argala, a Basque separatist militant who had taken
part, five years before, in the assassination of Francisco
Franco's prime minister, Luis Carrero Blanco.
A second group bearing this name was set up in 1970 by Adriano
Tilgher, but this movement was outlawed by the Italian
government, who saw it as an attempt to refound the National
Fascist Party.
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