Before FC Bayern’s Champions League game against Lazio Rome, there were incidents in Munich with visiting fans who were said to have, among other things, chanted fascist chants. On Tuesday, the Italian newspaper “La Repubblica” published a cell phone video from the Hofbräuhaus in which Lazio football supporters sing a song, at the end of which they shout “Duce, Duce, Duce” (Leader) – apparently referring to Italy’s fascists. Dictator Benito Mussolini (1883-1945).
The video also shows how some fans in the well-known inn show the so-called “Roman salute” with an outstretched arm, which is popular with fascists – comparable to the Hitler salute in Germany. At the request of the German Press Agency (dpa), the Munich police confirmed that there was an operation in the Hofbräuhaus on Monday evening, i.e. the eve of the second leg of the round of 16 this Tuesday (9 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker for the Champions League and on Prime Video). and investigations are underway. It was also confirmed that “a guest there had shown the so-called ‘Hitler salute’.”
“The suspect, an 18-year-old Italian tourist, was found on site and temporarily arrested,” the police said on Tuesday evening. After the police measures were completed, he was released after “paying a security deposit in the four-digit euro range.”
The Roman city councilor for sports, Alessandro Onorato, strongly condemned the events depicted in the report. “The pictures of Lazio fans in Munich for the Champions League game, singing in honor of the Duce, showing the Roman salute, are a disgrace. They are dragging the team, all the fans and the city of Rome into the dirt,” he said on Tuesday.
In response to a dpa inquiry, the Hofbräuhaus said that a group of Lazio fans had been accompanied by the police throughout the evening. “We had no knowledge of any fascist songs that were being sung, nor did we notice any corresponding gestures from the guests. Otherwise we would definitely have intervened,” the statement said.
Christopher Meltzer, Munich Published/Updated: Recommendations: 6 Published/Updated: Recommendations: 2 Roland Zorn, Freiburg Published/Updated: Recommendations: 2
As can be seen on the cell phone video, the fans sang about, among other things, the “Black Shirts,” the paramilitary militias of Mussolini’s fascists. According to “Repubblica” there were almost 100 Roman fans in the inn. Lazio supporters repeatedly attract attention through fascist scandals. They are considered notorious in the Italian fan scene and have a clearly nationalistic profile.
