A row has erupted in the northern town
of Biella over a Christmas illumination put up near National
Partisans Association ANPI's local office spelling out "Merry X
Mas", or the name of the former elite frogmen WWII unit that
targeted partisans under the Nazi puppet Italian Social
Republic.
The local mayor first said he would take down the X Mas
reference but then, after talks with the centre-left Democratic
Party (PD) who had protested about "this offensive and
provocative act", decided to leave it up.
The X Mas, a crack corps led by Junio Valerio Borghese, first
found renown with daring raids against allied shipping but their
fame was later blemished by their collaboration with the Nazis
in rounding up and executing partisans.
Rightwingers sometimes still hail them in order to irk those on
the left.
photo: Borghese, who led an aborted coup d'etat in Italy in
December 1970
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