The president of the European parliament is under fire for downplaying the crimes of Benito Mussolini, after he said Italy’s fascist dictator had done positive things for the country.

Antonio Tajani, a close ally of the former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, told Italian radio that Mussolini had a good track record on developing infrastructure:“I’m not a fascist, I have never been a fascist and I don’t share [Mussolini’s] political thought, but if we must be honest, he built roads, bridges, buildings,” he said. “He reclaimed many parts of our Italy.”

His comments were swiftly denounced in Rome and Brussels. “Someone who finds merits in the deadly fascist regimes of the past is unworthy to remain president of the European parliament,” the co-chair of the Green group, Philippe Lamberts, tweeted. “Tajani should retract his statements or go.”

Udo Bullmann, the leader of the parliament’s Socialist group, said the remarks were unbelievable. “How can a president of the European parliament fail to acknowledge the nature of fascism?” he asked.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Benito Mussolini ‘reclaimed many parts of our Italy’, Tajani said. Photograph: AP

Stefano Buffagni, the Five Star Movement’s undersecretary for regional affairs, said: “Tajani has shown his true colours and should be ashamed of what he said about Mussolini … Remember that our constitution is based on other values. I’m proud to be different from them.”

Beppe Sala, the mayor of Milan and a member of the centre-left Democratic party, said: “I would have expected the president of the European parliament to have exercised silence on this issue.”

Tajani responded to the furore by accusing people of manipulating what he had said:

Antonio Tajani (@EP_President) Shame on those who manipulate what I’ve allegedly said on fascism. I’ve always been a convinced anti-fascist, I will not allow anyone to suggest otherwise. The fascist dictatorship, racial laws and deaths it caused are the darkest page in Italian and European history.

Tajani is the deputy leader of Forza Italia, the centre-right party Berlusconi founded. Berlusconi has also spoken highly of Mussolini, once saying that the dictator had never killed anyone. “Mussolini used to send people on vacation in internal exile,” he said. He also said the dictator’s racial laws were his worst fault, and that he “in so many other ways did well.”

Mussolini’s granddaughter, Alessandra, is a Forza Italia member and MEP, and another granddaughter, Rachele, belongs to the far-right Brothers of Italy.

Tajani’s views of Mussolini’s positive achievements are shared by many Italians, who yearn for a strongman leader and have long helped keep the spirit of Mussolini alive. The more recent revival of right-wing populism has also helped to dismantle the taboo.

Matteo Salvini, the interior minister and leader of the far-right League, sometimes quotes Mussolini, and League supporters have attended rallies carrying signs featuring photographs of the dictator alongside Salvini’s name. Marches organised by the neo-fascist groups Forza Nuova and CasaPound have also become a regular occurrence.

Tajani, who was Italy’s European commissioner before he became an MEP, is no stranger to controversy. He sparked outrage last month when he appeared to suggest Italy had a claim to territory in Slovenia and Croatia. At a ceremony in Trieste to commemorate a second world war massacre, he proclaimed “long live Italian Istria, long live Italian Dalmatia”. Both regions were occupied by Italian fascists in the war.

Slovenia’s prime minister, Marjan Šarec, accused Tajani of “historical revisionism without precedent”. Croatia’s prime minister, Andrej Plenković, a member of Tajani’s centre-right political grouping, the European People’s party, phoned him to tell him he was wrong. “I personally cannot accept statements that interfere with the territorial integrity of Croatia or contain elements of revisionism,” he said.

Tajani later said he had not intended to cause offence.