- guardian.co.uk, Monday November 13 2000 03.06 GMT
The National Alliance, a member of the centre-right opposition, wants a commission to excise offending passages dealing with 20th-century history. The appeal has alarmed the centre-left government and mortified some of the Alliance's own allies, who expect their coalition to win elections next year.
The National Alliance said councils that under its control would set up a "panel of experts" to vet reading lists. The party also controls the region of Lazio, which includes Rome.
Party spokesman Fabio Rampelli says the panel would be charged with "underscoring any insufficiency or arbitrary reconstruction of events".
"Some books distort the facts and omit entire historical periods with the mere aim of increasing Marxist historiography," he said.
Alleged bias includes twisting Mussolini's war record, ignoring partisan atrocities against fascists and distortions about recent events.
A history book by Augusto Camera and Renato Fabietti stands accused of assassinating the character of Silvio Berlusconi, the opposition leader who included the National Alliance in his 1994 government.
Mr Berlusconi's Forza Italia party distanced itself, saying that bias existed but that a panel was inappropriate. "The problem is finding the right cure," a spokesman said.
The prime minister, Giuliano Amato, will respond to the challenge in parliament tomorrow. His education minister, Tullio De Mauro, said: "In Italy we have free autonomous schools, in which free communities of teachers discuss, examine and decide, freely, which books they want to use."
His predecessor, Luigi Berlinguer, an ex-communist, said the plan smacked of Minculpop, Mussolini's culture ministry.
The row has undermined the National Alliance's efforts to rebrand itself as a mainstream party which had shed all remnants of racism, anti-semitism and totalitarianism.
A direct descendant of the Fascist party, it is led by the slick moderniser, Gianfranco Fini, whose diluted policies on law and order have angered some members. However, his moderating influence is said to be on the wane.
