Meloni stated "it is necessary to contextualise them. Those are laws that Silvio Berlusconi made for himself. But they are perfectly fair laws."[156] After the formation of FdI in 2012, Meloni decided to add the "tricolour flame" symbol to its flag, a symbol associated with MSI, which derived its name and ideals from the Italian Social Republic (RSI) a "violent, socializing, and revolutionary republican" variant of Italian Fascism established as a Nazi German puppet state by Mussolini in 1943.[157] The "tricolour flame" represents Mussolini's remains, where a flame is always burning on his tomb in Predappio.[158] Responding to the 2021 investigation, Meloni minimized the investigation, while she also refused to remove openly neo-fascist members of FdI.[159][160] Shortly before the 2022 general election, Meloni sacked a member that openly praised Adolf Hitler.[6] FdI had also distanced itself from the Ascoli Piceno section of FdI after it celebrated the anniversary of the March on Rome in 2019.[161]