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Fascism: Is Italy’s government allowing the past to live on? | BBC News

Italy's current government is led by the Brothers of Italy party, which has roots in post-war fascism.

Its leader, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, has said her movement has completely changed and that it is clear her politics are not those of the people raising their arms in Milan.

But some fear she and her party have not moved far enough away from their political origins and that what was once considered the extreme is becoming mainstream.

Ms Meloni's Brothers of Italy party bears the same three-coloured flame logo adopted by neo-fascist groupings after the second world war, but she has progressively shifted her movement away from the far right.

BBC's Mark Lowen looks into the world of neo-fascism in Italy for BBC InDepth.

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92 Comments

  1. I’m Italian and am appalled by all of this. It’s just sickening. Please know that these represent like less than 5% of us, for the most part we are a sensible and reasonable people who do not condone any of this.

  2. As the ‘Far Right’ is gaining in popularity all over the Western world one has to ask Why? Why are people dissatisfied with the current state of their lives, then one needs to ask Who is gaining from this situation. Those are the real perpetrators of our current lives of austerity. Most people the world over simply want the same things, freedom to live in peace and enough to raise their families.

    • Its the elitist way this reporter speaks that let’s me know who is to blame. He is literally saying the Italian government shouldn’t tolerate this. What does not tolerating it look like? Fascists wouldn’t tolerate it. If you want to censor or arrest people for this you are only going to make them stronger. In America it’s the people that claim to be anti-facist that are the most fascist. If you cheer on the government to censor them today; tomorrow they will do the same to you and your ideals. Just calling people “fascist” doesn’t mean anything anymore bc it’s so overused and used incorrectly. I guarantee who prospers from this are the same people that prosper from everything else. They love it. Any division is good for them. The actual Italians are the indigenous population of Italy so they aren’t crazy to feel like foreigners are coming to take their country. I used to say I wish the Native Americans were not accepting at all when the first Europeans came to their land but I realize now that the reason they didn’t understand the threat was because it didn’t happen overnight. It started very small and the natives had no idea what all would come, and if they had understood this threat sooner, they would have killed all the first ones to arrive. Colonialism never stops. In America, I have come to realize that what really makes a white supremacist is being so arrogant that it can’t happen to you. That what you have can’t ever be taken. The arrogance involved in people thinking it can’t happen to them are the real supremacists of any race or people.

    • I’d say dissatisfaction in the country is a fuel for criminal grifters and stupid ideologies to rise. the country has problems? yes. turning towards mussolini? these people are clearly out of their mind.

    • A culture shouldn’t be intact. All great empires in the history of mankind had diverse and multi-ethnical cultures. Take the Roman Empire itself – since we are talking about Italy. We all understand how much prejudice and racism your comment carries, but it’s still very dumb

    • The UK is excellent at integrating people into their culture. The leaders of Scotland, London, and the entire UK are all descendants of immigrants and the leaders of Northern Ireland and Wales were born abroad. The UK has more foreign-born residents than the US. Educated adults are as likely as native Britons to work and uneducated adults are 12% more likely to work. Students who don’t have English as a native language do better than Britons at math and English exams. Immigrants with foreign credentials have roughly the same employment rate as local qualifications. Britain is extremely good at having people come, adopt the culture, and become citizens. So I would call that pretty good at keeping their culture intact!

    • No it is not. What is happening is that moderate people are being pushed to the right. This is a minority which, albeit being somewhat a threat, does not represent the real threats: rising organised crime infiltrating society and islamism, which are undoubtedly correlated with uncontrolled immigration from ME and North Africa. A recent report in Sweden has shown that Iran is founding organised crime and indoctrination of the 2nd and 3rd generation immigrants from ME. We are under attack and the left seems oblivious to the real threat of our societies. Today EU election voting results will show you. Mark my words.

  3. “No government fights fascism to destroy it. When the bourgeoisie sees that power is slipping out of its hands, it brings up fascism to hold onto their privileges.” Buenaventura Durruti

    • Fascism is basically a movement of middle classes in Europe, because it also involves defending all of the business interests of whatever types of people middle classes, including factories and everything else.

    • Everyone is just fighting to protect their children’s interests and future. Movements like this pop up because the established channels of political action are not taking their concerns seriously.

    • Fascism is the swan song of capitalism. It is the contradictions of a conflicted system flaring up after they’ve gone unaddressed for too long. Only after it serves its purpose of purging class consciousness will liberal capitalist power seek to return it to the prior state.

  4. What is fascism? Is it anti-immigrant? Does it want to preserve traditional culture and oust foreign influence?
    Or, does it allow exterior cultures to supplant the natives? These terms are used very loosely and don’t really match the definitions.

    • In all of the history of the world, there is not a singe instance of what you’re describing, except by armed conquest.
      An exterior culture cannto supplant the native, because you would have to convert the native to the new culture by force or persuasion, which never happen.

    • Listen to Umberto Eco’s 14 Characteristics of Fascism.

      Unless you’re entirely disinterested in an honest definition, and care more to rebrand it to your liking…

    • @@philguer4802 Literally half the history of the USSR says otherwise. Where do you think Siberia got all those people, and how Eastern Europe started speaking so much Russian?

    • Key points of fascism, hope this helps.

      1. The mythical past—used to invoke a nostalgia for a fictional time when the nation was great as it was not yet sullied by the “Other.”
      2. Propaganda—to attack enemies, to justify violence, to justify laws against “Them” and to support the authoritarian leader.
      3. Anti-intellectualism—to attack the media, universities, and scientists when they contradict the strong man’s authority.
      4. Unreality—supporting conspiracy theories that tarnish the “Other” along with an outright denial of facts when convenient.
      5. Hierarchy—espousing a “natural order” where the “Us” are hardworking, moral, law-abiding and productive members of society, while the “Other” is not.
      6. Victimhood—casting “Us” as victims of “Them”, who are taking resources from “Us” and demanding special rights.
      7. Law and order—using laws to justify violence, oppression, and expulsion of the “Other”.
      8. Sexual anxiety—as the “Other” embraces non-traditional approaches to sexuality,
      9. Appeals to the heartland—as rural communities are often more homogeneous and conservative (more “Us”) while urban cities are often more diverse, cosmopolitan (more “Them”).
      10. Dismantling of public welfare and unity—by casting aside safety net programs as unfair giveaways to “Them”, who are not working, as opposed to “Us”, who are.

    • Hope you guys read my replies… YouTube really doesn’t like it when you talk bad about communism for some reason. Doesn’t mind if you talk bad about fascists…but not communists.

    • @banquetoftheleviathan1404 I’m not at war with anyone, neither is the country I live in. Here is a bit of good advice…. Communism AND fascism are terrible and are responsible for millions of deaths…..more so communism than fascism, well a lot more so, but you get the point. This isn’t a war.

    • @@mattdrummond9087 fascism is an ideology that by definition dehumanizes an other and often ends in a genocide of that other. Communism, tho havening a really bad track record, is not by definition doing that. Also communism is not on the rise in the western world and fascism is.

      You’re basically doing the equivalent of getting mad at an H2S PSA because C02 can also kill people so why have a PSA about H2S if your not going to address C02. Aka a strawman.

  5. People in the comment section know the difference between patriotism and fascism? Because fascism is not only corporativism, patriotism or nationalism as someone said. Fascism is a totalitarian ideology that came to power between 20s and 40s of the last century instilling fear through the society, eliminating political opposition (read about fascist squadrism, Matteotti murder etc.), prohibitng free and multiparty elections (national fascist party was the only legal party in italy) and subjugating and discriminating minorities. Fascism is violence, this is the true definition, because is a violent ideology, came to power with violence and led Italy to violence, dictatorship and the absence of rights and freedom and ultimately to war. National socialism was inspired by fascism and that should says it all. The historical revisionism we are witnessing in this period is unacceptable and is based on fear, confusion and poorness of the people. These are hard and uncertain times and today as then far-right blows on the general discontent with the risk of starting a fire that will not be easy to put out if it becomes too large as history teaches. Don’t look for easy answers to complex problems, try to use your head and not your gut, we must all try to find an alternative to all of this together and united. And the far-right parties that don’t condemn these so called nostalgic tributes are complicit and irresponsible because they do it for electoral gain or worse out of real conviction in certain cases for these ideas. Or worse for pure ignorance because you can be nationalist and right-wing without being illiberal and fascist, because it is too easy to condemn the drifts of an ideology if the ideology itself is incompatible with our liberal democracies. This is why they always taught us to watch over democracy because this is not just an Italian phenomenon but a European if not global one. Think about it, people. And get informed well about what surrounds you and about history. And the great grandson of a fascist secret agent tells you this so i know what i’m talking about and the risks involved in this dangerous twist.

  6. Ancient Rome was the most multicultural society the world had ever seen. Modern-day Italians have genetics drawn from northern Africa, the Middle East and Europe. Diversity is strength.

  7. Fascism as a philosophy started in Milan at the university(Giovanni Gentile). It was a theory of materialism and reality and its place in the “ideal” .. it facilitated in a backhanded way any esoteric or traditionally humanitarian approach to politics… was called “active idealism”. Transcendence or esotericism was to be found in action, the will and was placed firmly in the “material”. It was a remedy offered to governmental paralysis arising from the party systems and regulation, and antidemocratic. (sort of like today) Rationalized all sorts of damaging, oppressive policies. BBC should do a piece on the academic origins of this philosophy.

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