The new mayor of Rome, a former neo-fascist, has praised Benito Mussolini as an inspired architect who modernised Italy.

The election of Gianni Alemanno, 50, has prompted fears of a fascist revival because he once led the neo-fascist Italian Social Movement (MSI). His arrival at the city hall was celebrated by a crowd giving the fascist salute and chanting, “Duce! Duce!” – the title used by Mussolini, who ruled Italy between 1922-43.

Speaking to The Sunday Times in his office overlooking the Forum, Alemanno was at pains to deny in his first interview with a foreign newspaper that he was “a fascist or an ex-fascist or a postfascist”.

A wiry, energetic figure, he explained: “The left describes me as a bogeyman, a nasty Blackshirt, but that’s a complete lie.

“People calling me ‘Duce’ makes me laugh. I’m not at all fascist and I think that today the word belongs to the history books. I’ve grown to hate all forms of totalitarianism, whether of the left or of the right.

“I’ve never described myself as fascist, even when I was young, but in the 1970s and 1980s we on the right believed fascism was substantially positive. Now we realise it was totalitarian and generally negative, it has to be condemned.”

Asked whether he still sees anything positive in the fascist legacy, he replied: “What’s historically positive is the process of modernisation – fascism was fundamental to modernising Italy. The regime reclaimed much marshland; it set up the country’s infrastructure.” Mussolini drained the malaria-infested swamps, allowing peasants to work the land.

Alemanno praised a district south of Rome, which Mussolini built as a symbol of fascism, calling it an example of “architecture that was part of the modernisation process and gave importance to Italy’s cultural identity”. The EUR district’s monumental style, built for an international exhibition that was abandoned because of the war, was modelled on that of ancient Rome.

Alemanno spoke as Silvio Berlusconi, 71, the media tycoon, was sworn in for a third term as prime minister, heading one of Italy’s most conservative governments since the second world war. Among them is Mara Carfagna, 32, a former television showgirl, who is equal opportunities minister and one four new women ministers.

An officer’s son, Alemanno became politically involved at 13 and later fought street battles with left-wing opponents. He was arrested in 1981 for beating up a student with four other neo-fascists wielding baseball bats; in 1982 for throwing a Molotov cocktail at the Soviet embassy; and in 1989 for trying to block the motorcade of the first President George Bush. Each time he was acquitted.

During the interview, Alemanno came closer than before to saying he was guilty of all three incidents. At first he said they were marginal and he had been acquitted. Questioned about whether he regretted the episodes, however, he answered: “Of course if I had to go through those years again I wouldn’t do those things again, despite the fact there was a civil war going on at the time.”

He pointed to a scar on his upper lip. “One guy threw a punch and split my lip. But far more serious than this scar is the fact that many activist friends of mine were killed by left-wing activists.”

Alemanno went on to become part of the conservative National Alliance party’s most right-wing faction. An MP for 14 years, he served as agriculture minister during Berlusconi’s last term of office without attracting controversy. However, his campaign against Franco Rutelli, the centre-left former mayor, with its emphasis on crime and immigration, prompted accusations that he was playing the race card.

“I realise people may think I’m being harsh, but in Rome we’re living through an emergency; we have to regain total control of the territory,” he said.

“In the south of Italy the problem is the mafia. In Rome the problem is immigration: there’s a large group of desperate people who survive in dodgy ways.”

He wants to expel 20,000 foreign criminals. “We have to put these people on planes home but we need the okay from countries such as Romania, so we’re going to work on that,” he said.

As the interview ended, Alemanno made one last attempt to rid himself of the label that has stuck to him for years: “It would be impossible for a fascist to be elected mayor of Rome. Rome is a city that has solid democratic roots and that respects everyone. The Romans are not mad and neither am I.”

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