Berlusconi defends Mussolini as Hitler ally

ROME -- Former Premier Silvio Berlusconi praised Benito Mussolini for "having done good" despite the Italian fascist dictator's anti-Jewish laws, immediately sparking expressions of outrage as Europe held Holocaust remembrances on Sunday.

Berlusconi also defended Mussolini for allying himself with Hitler, saying he probably reasoned that it would be better to be on the winning side.

The media mogul, whose conservative forces are polling second in voter surveys ahead of next month's election, spoke to reporters on the sidelines of a ceremony in Milan to commemorate the Holocaust.

In 1938, before the outbreak of World War II, Mussolini's regime passed the so-called "racial laws," barring Jews from Italy's universities and many professions, among other bans. When Germany's Nazi regime occupied Italy during the war, thousands from the tiny Italian Jewish community were deported to death camps.

"It is difficult now to put one's self in the shoes of who was making decisions back then," Berlusconi said of Mussolini's support for Hitler. "Certainly the [Italian] government then, fearing that German power would turn into a general victory, preferred to be allied with Hitler's Germany rather than oppose it."

Berlusconi added that "within this alliance came the imposition of the fight against, and extermination of, the Jews. Thus, the racial laws are the worst fault of Mussolini who, in so many other aspects, did good."

Outrage, along with a demand that Berlusconi be prosecuted for promoting fascism, quickly followed his words. Among those voicing condemnation were prominent Jewish figures abroad.

Mussolini "modeled his anti-Jewish laws after the Nazi Nuremberg Laws barring Jews from civil service," Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, said in a statement.

"It is the height of revisionism to try to reinstate an Italian dictator who helped legitimize and prop up Hitler as a 'reincarnated good guy,' " said the rabbi, whose organization monitors anti-Semitic incidents worldwide.

Berlusconi's praise of Mussolini constitutes "an insult to the democratic conscience of Italy," said Rosy Bindi, a center-left leader. "Only Berlusconi's political cynicism, combined with the worst historic revisionism, could separate the shame of the racist laws from the fascist dictatorship."

Hours later, Berlusconi issued a statement saying he "regretted" that he didn't make clear in his earlier comments that his historical analyses "are always based on condemnation of dictatorships," the Italian news agency LaPresse reported.