-You might think you were in fascist Italy

ROME (Aftenposten): Inside the Olympic Stadium, Norway takes home the gold medals. Abroad, few attempts have been made to cover up the fascist past.

– There are too many Mussolini! After all, you'll back down if you're not ready, says Øystein Sørensen. He is a professor of history and has been to the Piazza della Piazza in Rome several times.

Last week, Europe's best track and field athletes battled for honor and glory amid symbols and objects that paid tribute to one of Europe's most brutal regimes.

– When you come to the area, you meet someone Obelisk Obelisk Long, slender columnWhere it says “Mussolini dox,” Sorensen says. This means Mussolini the leader.

“You might think you were in fascist Italy,” Sorensen says.

Benito Mussolini came to power in Italy in 1922 and remained there until 1943. He led the fascist movement in the country.

He advocated extreme, aggressive, and brutal nationalism. He wanted to create a close national community. Then there was no room for what he considered divisive factors, such as democracy, liberal rights, or class struggle. He wanted to do this through an all-encompassing state authority, which governed strictly from above, Sørensen says.

The goal was a national renaissance. He wanted to create a new Roman Empire, in which the great ancient values ​​that had been lost were supposed to triumph again.

The fascists wanted the Olympics

Around the Olympic Stadium there are many inscriptions.

On the footpath leading to the stadium itself, there are square blocks engraved with markings of important anniversaries in the history of fascism, Sørensen says.

One of them praises the Italian war in Ethiopia.

“It was exceptionally brutal,” Sorensen says.

The Stadio dei Marmi is located just outside the main stadium. Around the running track, where Jakob Ingebrigtsen and other athletes warm up before races during the European Championships, there are 60 marble statues.

There are sports artists who follow the fascist ideal.

One of the core values ​​was the necessity of continuity with a great and glorious past. Hence the classic, vintage aesthetic. Sorensen says it was very difficult to recover the lost values.

The two arenas are part of a larger complex where a number of Italian sports federations are based. There are also arenas for other sports.

Today it is called Foro Italico, but before that it was called Foro Mussolini.

The fascist regime had several goals with the region. They wanted to host the Olympics in 1940. This was four years after Adolf Hitler's Nazi Germany hosted the games in Berlin.

But they also wanted to build a facility where young men could train to become good athletes or soldiers.

Sorensen was amazed that so much of this was allowed to stand and that it was also renovated.

– It is an expression that Italy's attitude towards the fascist period is different and more relaxed than Germany's attitude towards the Nazi era.