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Post-fascism is a far-right political current that can be attributed to different formations that are heirs of fascism. Unlike the neo-fascist parties, which after the Second World War have sought to return to that regime, the post-fascists also maintain ultra-nationalist and ultra-conservative positions, but within constitutional politics and the contemporary neoliberal context.
The term has resurfaced in the media with the victory of the Brothers of Italy party, led by Giorgia Meloni, in that country’s general elections. It has also been present in academia: the Italian historian Enzo Traverso, for example, spoke about post-fascism in his 2018 book The new faces of the rightwhere he points out the similarities between historical fascism and part of the recent extreme right.
From the Italian Social Movement to Brothers of Italy
After the fall of Mussolini and the end of World War II, the defeated fascists grouped together in 1946 into the Italian Social Movement (MSI). As Italy did not have a process similar to German denazification, this party, led by Arturo Michelini and later by Giorgio Almirante, participated for decades in the politics of the new republic with fascist positions. It became the fourth political force, but over time it had splits among radical members due to attempts at moderation.
Looking ahead to the 1994 elections, which marked a new political stage in Italy after the corruption scandal Tangentopoli, the MSI became the National Alliance. Its leader, Gianfranco Fini, had already been turning the party’s discourse towards conservative nationalism, and began to use the term “post-fascist” to establish that the new formation had overcome fascism. With the departure of Fini in 2012, former members of the National Alliance led by Giorgia Meloni, who had been a member of the MSI, created Brothers of Italy, which retains positions, the tricolor flame in the logo or the motto “God, country and family.” .
Post-fascism is also a child of its time
Fascism and post-fascism coincide in their defense of the homeland against what they consider threats to the nation, but in different contexts. While fascism emerged in the interwar period as an alternative to democracies in a Europe in crisis, post-fascism dispenses with totalitarianism, qualifies positions such as the need for violence and participates in a framework of democratic and capitalist primacy.
In the case of Brothers of Italy, the post-fascist recipe is politically reactionary. It points out the problems caused by neoliberalism, but does not seek to eliminate it, and proposes itself as a guarantor of order in an unstable politics. It also aims to recover sovereignty against a European Union to which it blames the economic crises, and against migrants whom it blames for unemployment or de-Christianization.
In this way, in post-fascism a nationalist and anti-political discourse, social phobias and an offer of protection to the disenchanted come together. Building an exclusive idea of the “others”, anti-Semitism has today transformed into xenophobia and Islamophobia, but it takes a more defensive and conservative stance, urging to set borders and expel foreign influence.
On the far-right spectrum
Current post-fascist positions have inherited from fascism the opposition to globalization and elites, as well as economic nationalism. Therefore, they are part of the phenomenon of the extreme right, and more specifically the radical right. With the adoption of liberal economic ideas by social democracy, the extreme right has also won over the working classes by squeezing nationalist and conservative elements. They blame migrants for lack of work or crime, and convince the unemployed or disadvantaged population with racist language or anti-immigration policies.
In Europe, Meloni’s victory and the elections in Sweden have confirmed the advance of the extreme right beyond the Visegrad Group. With the new Italian Government, the French Marine Le Pen or the Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, the hard right has gained ground on the continent, coinciding with the radicalization in Brazil under the presidency of Jair Bolsonaro or in the United States with Donald Trump.