Gondolier in Venice accused of celebrating Fascism by having images of Mussolini in his boat

A gondolier in Venice has been accused of celebrating Fascism after fitting out his boat with cushions depicting Benito Mussolini.

A photograph of the two cushions, depicting the profile of Il Duce and fasces – the axe and bundle of sticks that were adopted as the emblems of Fascism – went viral on Italian social media.

Many Venetians were appalled that one of the most famous symbols of their city had been coopted by an apparent apologist for the Fascist era of the 1920s and 1930s.

Andrea Balbi, the president of the gondoliers’ association, ordered the cushions to be immediately removed.

“This is a very serious incident. Through the centuries, gondolas have never been politicised,” he said.

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The unnamed gondolier was also criticised by a national organisation that represents the partisans who fought against the Fascists and their German Nazi allies during the Second World War.

“These symbols represent a criminal regime,” said Gianluigi Placella, of ANPI, the partisans’ association. “Displaying them like this is a crime.”

The gondolier should be stripped of his license, he said.

A very small but vocal minority of Italians identify as Fascists, lauding Mussolini and harking back to the supposed achievements of Fascism.

Civil rights groups say that neo-Fascists and other extremists are being encouraged by the hard-Right rhetoric of Matteo Salvini, the interior minister.

He has railed against migrants and refugees, singled out convenience stores run by Bangladeshi immigrants and blocked Italian ports to NGO vessels that rescued migrants in the Mediterranean.

In July, he was criticised for using a phrase that was made popular by Mussolini.

Responding to criticism that he was fomenting xenophobia with his anti-immigrant rhetoric, Mr Salvini wrote on Twitter: “Many enemies, much honour”.

The words he used in Italian – “Tanti nemici, tanto onore” – were almost identical to one of Mussolini’s well-known sayings – “Molti nemici, molto onore”.

The fact that the minister cited the phrase on the anniversary of Mussolini’s birth only made it more inflammatory.

Fascists make regular pilgrimages to Predappio, a town in northern Italy where Mussolini was born in 1883.

They wear black shirts and give stiff-armed, Fascist salutes outside the crypt where Mussolini is buried.

One woman was placed under investigation in October for wearing a T-shirt with the words “Auschwitzland” written across it.