Archive/File: fascism/italy gm.060294 Last-Modified: 1994/06/07 The (Toronto, Canada) Globe & Mail, A9 June 2, 1994 Mussolini's ghost still rattling his chains by Alan Cowell New York Times Service, Rome The two moments were days apart in different cities, yet they depicted perfectly the splintered soul of Italy's splintered neo-fascists. In Vicenza in early May, 200 young men, many with shaved heads, threw the straight-armed salutes of the Fascist era, hoisted banners emblazoned with swastikas and paraded through the streets, lauding the memory of Mussolini and Hitler in a display of what Italians call "nazi-skin" protest. A few days later in Rome, a crowd of similar size -- this time smartly shod matrons and gentlemen in suits -- packed a salon in Palazzo Brancaccio, offering demure applause for Gianfranco Fini, head of the Italian Social Movement, the neo-fascist party. The only reference to Mussolini was understated: his granddaughter, Alessandra Mussolini, now a legislator, was one of the dignitaries. Each episode provided part of the answer to the same question: What, exactly, does the resurgent right wing represent as Italy struggles to define its political future? "Like many Western fascist movements, they have always had two souls," said Valerio Marchi, a left-wing journalist and author. "One soul is the classic conservative. The other is the national revolutionary." But two months after the election that brought neo-fascists into Italy's government for the first time since the Second World War, interviews with their leaders, their supporters and their extremist members have disclosed a movement whose most prominent figures see their political interests served by a role in government. But the mainstream disowns both the extremes of the past and the minority that seeks to revive them. The neo-fascist presence in the government of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi seems certain to insert itself into the agenda, in one way or another, when U.S. President Bill Clinton arrives in Rome today as part of a tour commemorating Allied landings in Europe 50 years ago. For Mr. Berlusconi, the very nature of his alliance has offered the first challenge -- at least by outsiders -- to the legitmacy of the government elected in March, when Italians rejected a whole generation of postwar leaders after more than two years of corruption scandal. Already, politicians in Belgium, Germany and France have expressed anger that a European government should embrace the political descendants of wartime fascism. But that has only inspired Mr. Berlusconi to defend his alliance, saying that none of his ministers have any direct ties to a Fascist history that finds many disparate echoes in modern Italy. For some Italians, the neo-fascist leadership of Mr. Fini, 42, represents a break with the corrupt past, a voice for change as compelling as that of Mr. Berlusconi himself. For others, the emergence of the Italian Social Movement has legitimized a nostalgia for what is seen as the efficiency of the Fascist era. And for yet others, on the violent fringes, neo-fascism provides a home for the hate-laden xenophobia and anti-semitism that Italians have never liked to confront since Mussolini's 1938 race laws turned Jews into second-class citizens. Common to all, through, is the troublesome and pervasive memory of Mussolini, which provides inspiration for some and forces a political high-wire act on those like Mr. Fini, who is unable to deny his political roots for fear of losing support. "Fascism is part of the past, part of history," Alessandra Mussolini said in an interview. But she added, "It's an academic debate, not a political discussion." Mr. Fini, whose aides said his schedule did not permit an interview, took a similar tone in parliament recently: "We have repudiated totalitarianism forever. Totalitarianism is racism, totalitarianism is xenophobia, totalitarianism is anti-Semitism. And if we are asked to sign a declaration on the principles of democracy and anti-totalitarianism, we will sign it, in absolute sincerity, because we believe in it." He did not, however, explicitly denounce Fascism. On the extreme fringes, and lurking in the hearts of some who project themselves as moderates, there lies a deeper yearning that seems to prevent Mr. Fini from making a more explicit break. "If Fini is not careful, if he does not defend the true values of Fascism that feed his elctoral base, his support will evaporate," said Maurizio Boccacci, 37, the leader of the small, outlawd Movimento Politico. His party is a sponsor of the nazi-skins. Fascism in Italy traces its heritage to the government of Benito Mussolini, who ruled Italy from 1922 until 1943, when his government fell and he became head of a Nazi puppet government, the Italian Social Republic. Its capital was the small town of Salo, in Northern Italy. Some prominent figures in the Italian Social Movement today -- the legislators Mirko Tremaglia and Teodoro Buontempo and the rightist idologue Pino Rauti -- fought for Salo. One year after the Italian Social Republic collapsed in 1945, the survivors formed the Italian Social Movement. Its name and imagery -- a symbolic coffin topped by a blazing torch -- traced its direct line to Fascism's last years. Throughout the Cold War, the party, knoown as the _Missini_ from its initials in Italian, captured a steady 5 to 8 per cent of the vote. But when the old political certainties crumbled with Italy's huge corruption scandal, the party's support surged. As the national election loomed this year, the Italian Social Movement drew in other right-wing Italians to form the National Alliance. In the election, the alliance captured 14 per cent of the votes, many of them from dissaffected former Christian Democrats and rightists who saw the movement legitimized by its ties to Mr. Berlusconi. In today's ruling coalition, the National Alliance has 109 of the 630 seats in the lower house, Mr. Berlusconi's Forza Italia has 129 and the separatist Northen League under Umberto Bossi has 122. None of today's neo-fascists say they want a return to the dictatorship, repression, racist policies and state control of the economy that marked the Mussolini era. Rather, they say, their platform is in the tradtion of Western democracy, seeking restraints on capitalism, an efficient and corruption-free government, the protection of jobs through curbs on immigration and a moral order drawing in part of such Catholic teachings as opposition to abortion and in part on sterner punishment of criminals. The attempt to embrace more moderate policies has divided the neo-fascists, possibly foreshadowing a public rift. Mr. Rauti, for example, argues openly for the preservation of Fascist values. "Behind us we have the March on Rome, the corporate state, the Second World War against the plutocracies, the Social Republic," he said, "And some of this must remain, like a mine, a pool from which to draw." The differences go further. While Mr. Rauti and otehrs on the right refuse to condemn nazi-skins (Italians use this term in English for violent right-wing extremists and thugs with shave heads), calling them victims of social malaise, Mr. Fini says they should be sent to work in the mines. =30=
Home ·
Site Map ·
What's New? ·
Search
Nizkor
© The Nizkor Project, 1991-2012
This site is intended for educational purposes to teach about the Holocaust and
to combat hatred.
Any statements or excerpts found on this site are for educational purposes only.
As part of these educational purposes, Nizkor may
include on this website materials, such as excerpts from the writings of racists and antisemites. Far from approving these writings, Nizkor condemns them and
provides them so that its readers can learn the nature and extent of hate and antisemitic discourse. Nizkor urges the readers of these pages to condemn racist
and hate speech in all of its forms and manifestations.