Letter: The first Fascists in office since the war

Sir: Your article 'Berlusconi picks three Fascists' (11 May) stated that the neo-Fascist members of the new Italian government are the first Fascists to hold ministerial office in Europe since the end of the Second World War. This is unfortunately incorrect: most Spanish government ministers until the death of Franco in 1975 were members of the Movimiento Nacional de la Falange Espanola Tradicionalista Sindicalista y Juntas de Ofensiva Nacional Sindicalista, in those days the only legal political grouping in Spain.

Even after Franco's death, many government ministers, until the election of the Socialist government several years later, were former members of the Movimiento. It is ironic, given this error, that one of Franco's principal tenets was that Spain was separate and distinct from the rest of Europe.

Yours faithfully,

DAVID JOHNSON

Harpenden, Hertfordshire

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