Italy’s September election is bringing more and more Benito Mussolini sympathizers to power. On October 13, Italy’s majority right-wing parliament elected Ignazio Benito Maria La Russa as its president of the senate. The next day, Lorenzo Fontana was elected president of the Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of Italy’s Parliament.

La Russa and Fontana constitutionally hold the two highest offices in the republic behind the president, but not without criticism. “Italy’s parliamentary chambers will in future be led by an avowed post-fascist and a Putin admirer,” Handelsblatt wrote (Trumpet translation throughout). Italy has entered a dangerous new era.

The votes of Giorgia Meloni’s Fratelli d’Italia and Matteo Salvini’s Lega largely contributed to La Russa’s victory. “We’re proud that the senators have elected a patriot, a servant of the state, a man in love with Italy and someone who has always put the national interest before anything else,” Meloni, set to be Italy’s new prime minister, said.

The sudden change in political direction was not missed by the media. “The process of forming Italy’s new right-wing government began with the sight of an Auschwitz survivor handing over the country’s second highest-ranking office to a senator who refuses to celebrate the nation’s liberation from fascism,” the Herald wrote on October 13. Following the September election, Liliana Segre, a Holocaust survivor, took the interim role of president of the senate. The Herald recounted her background, stating: “Born into a secular family of Jewish descent, the 92-year-old was unaware of her religious background until Mussolini’s racial laws saw her expelled from school in 1938.”

When assuming office, Segre said: “In this month of October, which marks the centenary of the March on Rome that began the fascist dictatorship, it falls on me to momentarily assume the presidency of this temple of democracy that is the Senate of the Republic.” She has now been replaced by a Mussolini admirer.

La Russa “openly collects World War ii fascist memorabilia, including busts and statues of the dictator Benito Mussolini in his basement,” the Daily Beast noted, referencing a 2018 journalist visit to his home. “His father was the secretary of the Fascist Party under Mussolini, and some of the tokens are directly tied to il Duce, he told an Italian television crew who were allowed into the trophy room.”

“La Russa not only has a statue of the fascist dictator in his house, his father was part of the fascist party, gave his son the middle name Benito,” Handelsblatt wrote. “During the election campaign, La Russa declared that ‘we are all heirs of the Duce.’ Still in the pandemic, he advised Italians to stop shaking hands—preferring instead to show the ‘Roman salute,’ the Italian version of the Hitler salute.”

But he is not the only high-ranking Mussolini admirer. Meloni and Salvini also have expressed their fascination with the dictator (read “Fascism Reawakens in Italy”). Furthermore, the whole of Italy’s government never broke rank with the mass murderer. The Ministry of Economic Development has recently been criticized for hanging pictures of all previous heads of departments including a photo of Mussolini. In response to criticism, the ministry noted that a photo of Mussolini also hangs in Palazzo Chigi—the seat of the prime minister. La Russa noted that a picture of Mussolini also hangs in the Ministry of Defense, and that an obelisk in front of the Olympic Stadium in Rome still says “Mussolini Dux” in large letters. He argued that Italy shouldn’t give in to the cancel culture. “The future Italian government is likely to be as far to the right as any since World War ii,” Germany’s n-tv.de commented. “So it is no coincidence that ministries in Rome are wrangling over portraits of Mussolini in their ancestral gallery.”

The election of Lorenzo Fontana as the president of the Chamber of Deputies is equally controversial, though it initially appears to give hope for a conservative revival in Italy that puts an end to liberal family-destroying and economy-wrecking policies. Fontana is known for his stance on seeking to restrict abortions, end mass immigration and ban gay marriage. To do so, Fontana seeks a strong alliance with the Catholic Church.

In his first speech as chamber president, he called the pope a “spiritual reference of the majority of Italian citizens, promoting respect for the highest moral values in the world.” The Catholic News Agency detailed his staunch Catholic background in “Italy’s New No. 3 Is a Catholic Politician Studying Philosophy at a Pontifical University.” Fontana has also protested against European Union sanctions against Russia.

Many may argue that the fight against liberal perversions is a good thing. But a study of history shows that the promised solution is anything but better. Adolf Hitler claimed to fight communism and end rampant prostitution and a reckless societal decline. His fight against these far-left policies were outlined in his book Mein Kampf. In this fight, Hitler joined forces with the worst thugs in the nation and brought the greatest calamity our world has seen in recent history.

Benito Mussolini was Hitler’s right hand man in Italy and, in some ways, even his role model. Together, they saw it as their duty to revive Europe’s culture—also known as the culture of the Holy Roman Empire. They inspired millions to join their fight.

The shocking rise of Italy’s old regime is not only historically significant but also of profound prophetic importance. Revelation 17:8 reads: “The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder … when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.”

“What is this beast that ‘was, and is not, and yet is’?” Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry asked. He answered:

World War ii was dominated by the Hitler-Mussolini axis, but then it disappeared from the scene. It “was not”! Yet, God says, “it is”! Though the Axis powers lost the war, they went into hiding underground—into what this prophecy describes as “the bottomless pit.” They remained, but out of common sight. But they will not remain there. God says they are going to ascend again!

History confirms what this prophecy foretold. The most senior Nazis were brought to justice—yet few others were. The U.S. even had intelligence showing that, before the end of the war, the Nazis planned to disappear into hiding. Yet we covered it up and kept it secret for 50 years. You can read all about this in our free booklet Germany’s Conquest of the Balkans.

Many of Mussolini’s supporters went underground in the Italian Social Movement—the very party which, after a series of rebrandings and splits, became the Brothers of Italy. Today they are emerging from the underground.

It is vital to understand this prophecy. Even though we do not yet see the full emergence of this old empire, Europe’s current course, if not altered, is destined to bring an even worse holocaust. Read “Fascism Reawakens in Italy,” by Gerald Flurry, to understand the profound prophetic angle to these events.