Justice Minister Nordio cites Mussolini-signed penal code in row over anti-fascist 'patentino' at Rome book fair
A demand for publishers to sign an anti-fascist declaration to attend Rome's 'Più Libri Più Liberi' fair has drawn censure from Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and a historical riposte from Justice Minister Carlo Nordio, who noted that Italy's penal code still bears the signature of fascist dictator Benito Mussolini.
The anti-fascist declaration demand
Organizers of the national small and medium publishing fair 'Più Libri Più Liberi', scheduled for December 2026 in Rome, have asked participating houses to sign a declaration of adherence to constitutional, democratic and anti-fascist principles. The requirement, quickly dubbed a 'patentino antifascista' (anti-fascist license), was intended as a non-partisan commitment to Republican values. Organizers stated that the move came from a need for clarity and unity among the various actors present at the fair, drawing only on institutional and universal references without political or party ties.
Meloni decries 'censorship'
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni reacted on social media, condemning the initiative as a form of censorship.
To participate in the small and medium publishing fair 'Più libri più liberi', publishing houses will have to obtain this year an 'anti-fascist license' by signing a special declaration. This is how the left conceives freedom of thought: you are free, but only if you say what they allow you to say, if you think what they think, if you read what they consider suitable. It is called, simply, censorship. And censorship is incompatible with any democratic society.
Meloni argued that the left masks the cancellation of non-leftist ideas as an anti-fascist fight, a narrative she said no longer fools anyone.
Nordio's historical counterpoint
The following day, Justice Minister Carlo Nordio entered the fray with a pointed historical observation.
Perhaps the organizers do not know that the most important book for our justice, that is the Penal Code, bears the signature of Mussolini.
Nordio was referring to the Rocco Code of 1930, formally enacted on 1 July 1931 by Royal Decree, which carries the signatures of King Vittorio Emanuele III, Prime Minister Mussolini and Justice Minister Alfredo Rocco. The code remains in force, though its most illiberal and authoritarian sections have been heavily amended over the decades by the Constitutional Court. Nordio's comment underscored the irony that Italy's foundational criminal law was forged under the very regime that the fair's declaration seeks to repudiate.
Left responds and organizers push back
Sandro Ruotolo, the Democratic Party's head of information and culture, challenged Meloni's stance, insisting that anti-fascism is not a partisan badge but the bedrock of the Italian Republic.
Anti-fascism is not a license. It is the common home of the Republic.
Ruotolo argued that anyone who swore an oath on Italy's anti-fascist Constitution should proudly defend those values rather than treat them as a problem, and that irritation with the word 'anti-fascism' fuels an ambiguity Italy ought to have left behind.
For their part, the Italian Publishers Association (AIE) expressed regret over the politicization of the affair, reiterating that the declaration is neither censorship nor an ideological test but a straightforward clarification of commitment to democratic principles. The row has nevertheless intensified, with the historical irony of Mussolini's signature on the penal code now a central flashpoint in the debate over whether such a declaration is a bulwark of liberty or a restriction on it.
