eurofascism.info

Gianfranco Fini once noted: «Nobody can ask us to deny our past, to break a continuity that is rooted at the base of our party, at the very moment when we are saying clearly that we have no desire to restore fascism. Like all Italians, we too are post-fascists. Not neo-fascists»

In 1995, the Italian New Right philosopher Marcello Veneziani claimed that the debate around the transformation of neo-fascism into a liberal democratic movement was on a low level and opportunistic. He saw Fini as profiting from favourable circumstances, which enabled him to introduce the radical right into mainstream Italian politics. Veneziani was parly right, and Fini is often seen as an opportunist, for good reason. But he is also a politician who believes it would be wrong to ban the Muslim veil and who says that integration «first of all means guaranteeing rights to immigrants, the right in believing in their God and in praying to their religion (sic). It means respecting their traditions and their history. At the same time, they have to accept our culture and carry out precise duties» (from an interview published on the website of AN 17. November 2006, no longer found online). That is a long way from his earlier views.

Fini no longer comes across as an old-school fascist and he has also stopped talking in the way of a Eurofascist. The Searchlight Magazine article quoted at the end of the last chapter might be right about a fascist symbol entering Downing Street together with Fini, but the below excerpt from a letter to the editor published in the Corriere della Sera does not sound like the words of a fascist:

A person is not a fanatic because he or she prays, or because he or she believes in Allah, even though many people make a lot of rarely innocent confusion about this point. Being an Islam[ic] extremist means refusing another person’s freedom, even another Muslim, if he or she dresses or thinks differently. Every fanatic, either with or without a turban, thinks himself infallible or behaves as if he were a guardian of God. This extremism and fanaticism are constant threats addressed not only to the Western world, but towards the world of Islam itself. A person who wishes to pray to his God should not be a problem in a multiethnic and multi-confessional society. If religious freedom is the foundation stone of a liberal and democratic constitution, the recognition of a minority religion like Islam [...] does not contradict the sense of national identity but contributes in allowing this identity to grow in the direction of more conscious and mature forms.

Still, Fini’s statement that «all Italians are post-fascists» is blatantly wrong. Fascism is still very much alive in Italy, represented in various segments of society and in several political parties, some of them more successful than others.

A striking example is found, of all places, on the soccer field. The Roman football star Paolo di Canio is infamous for flashing the Hitler salute to his team’s fans. He has been suspended for it twice, and has become no less than an idol amongst Lazio’s right-wing fans – the Irriducibili. «Ave Paolo» has become a favourite chant in the Olympia Stadium.  After criticism di Canio stated that he would «always salute», because it gives him «a sense of belonging to my people». Di Cario’s tattoes also tell an obvious story. On his back he has the symbol of Italian fascism – the fasces. On his right bicep he has a tattoo reading «DVX». It is the Latin appellative used for Mussolini. Di Canio has even dedicated a chapter of his autobiography to the dictator, partly praising him.

Reactions to the fascist salutes of di Canio were mixed, but several politicians on the Italian far right were rather supportive of the football fascist. Alessandra Mussolini – now the leader of her own party – commented that it was «nice to see the Roman salute» and that she would write him a thank-you letter. When di Canio was fined €10,000 by Italian football’s disciplinary body two AN parliamentarians proposed a collection to pay it. Amongst those who supported the initiative was Daniela Fini, Gianfranco Fini’s wife. She said the collection for Di Canio would be «an act of solidarity». It was probably an act of populism, appealing to a voter segment alienated by an Alleanza Nazionale going in an increasingly moderate direction.

Fascism still existed inside the AN, as well. In 2003 the local branch in Fiumicino, for example, called for a square to be named after the fascist leader Ettore Muti, while the president of the region of Lazio, Francesco Storace, asked that each city dedicate a street to Giorgio Almirante. Worse, in 2003 AN deputy Antonio Serena distributed a tape extolling ex-SS man Erich Priebke. Priebke participated in the massacre atthe Ardeatine caves in Rome in March 1943 where 335 Italians were murdered in retaliation after the Italian Resistance had set off a bomb near a column of German soldiers marching on via Ratella, killing 33. Priebke’s role is documented in the investigation carried out by the British judge advocate general immediately after the war. Investigators have also been looking into Priebke’s possible involvement in the deportation of thousands of Italian Jews to Nazi death camps.  Following his statements, Serena, a veteran of the MSI and the Lega Nord, was condemned by most senior AN executives and expelled from the party. He later joined Fiamma Tricolore. It is also worth noting that the AN party daily, Il Secolo d’Italia, has a tendency to paint a rosy picture of the fascist regime, and of speaking positively of leaders or supporters of the Salò Republic, «without mentioning the persecutions against political opponents and Jews». A website of AN’s youth organisation Azione Giovani, published a suggested reading list including works by Julius Evola, Corneliu Codreanu (the founder of the Romanian Iron Guard) and Léon Degrelle.

The comment given by Giorgia Meloni on behalf of Azione Giovani after Fabrizio Quattrocchi had been murdered by his hostage takers in Iraq is equally interesting. His kidnappers had forced him to dig his own grave and kneel beside it wearing a hood as they prepared to film his death, when he famously pulled off the hood and shouted «Adesso ora vi faccio vedere come muore un italiano», «Now I will show you how an Italian dies». Meloni wrote:

For sixty years they have taught us that we were a people [...] incapable of any action of heroism, any feeling of national pride. Therefore nobody expected that an Italian could react in that way. For sixty years, we have waited to see that other Italy, that which the left-wing have tried to hide and to suffocate. We revindicated it, handed it down, embodied it often. And then, unexpectedly, our Italy is in front of our eyes. Our martyrs in Nassirya, the Italian Red Cross that decides to stay in Iraq against the advice of the International Red Cross that runs away, and Fabrizio.

Meloni, too, claims to have a «serene relationship with fascism», considering it «a passage of our national history». On Mussolini she says that he made «a number of mistakes, the racial laws, entering the war» and that he represented «an authoritarian system». And yet, sixty years bring us back to 1944 and to the final days of the Salò Republic. The number hardly seems accidental.

In 1994, roughly two hundred demonstrators marched through the northern city of Vicenza shouting racist slogans and waving banners with swastika-like emblems. Most political leaders expressed outrage, including Gianfranco Fini. In true «law-and-order»-fashion he noted that the demonstrators should be put in coal mines «so they can break rocks with their heads». Teodoro Buontempo, an AN-parliamentarian, however, was not outraged. In an interview with La Stampa he said that he «would send them into the midst of society» to proclaim their values.  And that was exactly what happened.  Maurizio Boccacci, their leader, was was interviewed on the television network RAI-1:. «We follow a policy that we hope will regain lost values in our community», he said, «Fascism is the family, respect for older people and for the fatherland».

Just like Buontempo, Boccacci is a veteran of the MSI. But while Buontempo stayed on board Fini’s Alleanza Nationale, Boccacci found his political home in Fiamma Tricolore. In a press release from its Rome section he wrote:

[Fiamma Tricolore] is a movement born just to remark its own ideal proximity to the Social Republic and its fighters. This republic on which side we would surely have fought, if only the fate would have let us be born these years. And we should have surely fought to win, because for us the political synthesis originated from the thought of Benito Mussolini is the only political, economical and spiritual system able to bring the freedom and social justice that are today denied to Italians and all other world populations. [We] relaunch our battle for a better tomorrow, embodying the ideals of the Black Shirts of Alessandro Pavolini.

Fini might have put out the flame of the Movimento Sociale Italiano, but there are plenty of those who would like to see it light up again.

Roberto Fiore, Nick Griffin’s old mate, has returned to Italy and to Italian politics.  In 2005, he stood as a candidate in the local elections in the Basilicata region in southern Italy. As leader of Nuova Forza, Fiore was part of Alessandra Mussolini’s coalition of neo-fascist parties, Alternativa Sociale. This alliance was part of Berlusconi’s broad centre-right coalition before the 2006 elections, Casa delle Libertà, the House of Liberty.

Addendum:

Alleanza Nazionale merged with Berlusconi´s party People of Freedom in early 2009. Gianfranco Fini is currently the president of the Italian Chamber of Deputies. Alessandra Mussolini was preparing to rejoin AN as the People of Freedom-party was launched, and the remainders of her party (Azione Sociale) also joined this new party. Forza Nuova still exists, as does several other small neo-fascist parties, such as Fiamma Tricolore, Movimento Idea Sociale and Fronte Sociale Nazionale.

Further Reading:

Anti-Semitism Worldwide 1997/8: Continuity or change in the ideology of the Alleanza Nazionale, by Mario Sznajder, Stephen Roth Institute