According to a media report, before FC Bayern’s Champions League game against Lazio Rome, there was an incident in Munich with visiting fans who were said to have chanted fascist chants. The Italian newspaper “La Repubblica” published a cell phone video from the Hofbräuhaus on Tuesday in which Lazio football supporters sing a song, at the end of which they shout “Duce, Duce, Duce” (Leader) – referring to Italy’s fascist 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 banned Hitler salute in Germany.
In response to a dpa request, the Munich police confirmed that there was an operation at the Hofbräuhaus on Monday evening and that investigations were 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 event. “The pictures of the Lazio fans who are in Munich for the Champions League game, who sing in honor of the Duce and show the Roman salute, are a disgrace. They drag 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 were neither aware of any fascist songs being sung nor did we notice any corresponding gestures from the guests. Otherwise we would definitely have intervened,” the statement said.
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 may have chosen the Munich Hofbräuhaus deliberately: Adolf Hitler founded the NSDAP there in 1920.
For FC Bayern Munich on Tuesday (9 p.m./Prime Video) it’s about averting an early exit from the Champions League. In the second leg of the round of 16 against Lazio Rome, the German football record champions have to make up for a 0-1 defeat. “It’s a challenge,” said coach Thomas Tuchel on Monday.
