In local Italian elections in 1919, Mussolini refused to accept the results and vowed to overturn them by any means necessary.
Salvini, meanwhile, has used fascist slogans taken directly from the 1920s and 1930s.įurther afield, memories are fresh on how former United States president Donald Trump, the “Mango Mussolini”, brought public discourse to new lows during his time on the political stage. We do not have to look far to find fascism’s pollution of the modern political landscape: Berlusconi once defended the record of Benito Mussolini, Italy’s fascist leader, “repeating the stereotypical depiction of Italian fascism as essentially benign and generally popular,” notes Foot. It “enabled and informed the rise of Nazism in Germany, and other fascisms and authoritarian regimes”. “It is still with us as a warning, a prototype, and a possible future,” he writes. Italian fascism will always be relevant, Foot says, even if its domination of politics in Italy was defenestrated by the end of the World War II. And Forza Italia (Forward Italy), Silvio Berlusconi’s party, no stranger to right-wing electioneering, shows significant numbers in the polls if the orange-tinted octogenarian runs once more.
The far-right Lega (League) led by Matteo Salvini are polling strongly again. It is a timely account, marking the centenary of when Italian fascism came to power (“Year Zero”, as they grandiosely labelled 1922) and, with a general election in Italy next year, it is also a reminder of the remnants of fascism still embedded in the country’s politics.
0 kommentar(er)
