Fascists in Italy offer couples 1,500 euros for each baby named 'Benito'

What's in a name? A little extra cash, if the name is that of Italy's wartime Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini or his wife. A far-right party is offering 1,500 euros ($1,900) to parents in southern Italian villages who name their children Benito or Rachele after the Mussolinis. An official in the neo-Fascist Fiamma Tricolore party, Vincenzo Mancusi, says they are nice names. He says the initiative is a way to pay homage to his party's roots and keep alive names that are rarely used. Mancusi said Tuesday the bonus applies to five villages in the Basilicata region where birth rates are especially low. Designed as an incentive, it applies to babies who are born in 2009. Mancusi said the cash should be used to buy clothes or other items for the child. The Italian government already offers 1,000-euro grants to couples for every child in order to reverse the effects of a dwindling population. "This won't solve the shrinking population in [Basilicata], but this is a small effort by a small party," Mancusi told the Italian daily La Repubblica. Mancusi did not deny that the initiative is a way "to honor the party's deep roots." "We are representatives of the real right wing and we will not forget history," said Mancusi, who recently suggested expanding the plan by offering a yearly stipend of 1,500 euros for each baby until the child reaches the age of 18. Mancusi added that couples residing in the region but who emigrated from any European Union country would also be eligible for the grant. When asked why the preference for children named Benito and Rachele, Mancusi said the "choice of names was random" and that the two names "are no less beautiful than other names." There are very few Italian children who go by the name "Benito" due to the immediate association made with the Fascist dictator. Mussolini, ruled Italy from 1922 to 1943, enacted racial purity laws in the country in 1938. He was executed by Italian partisans in 1945 and his body was put on display at a central square in Milan alongside the body of his mistress, Clara Petacci. (Haaretz/26.11.2008)