Italy, Meloni, and Fascism

Ever since the deposition of Mussolini in 1943, Italy had never seen another rule by another totalitarian, Fascistic politician. But as Meloni`s government progresses on, the similarities between the autocratic rule of Mussolini, and the Right-Wing Brothers of Italy, as well as the blurred relationship between the two, have made the classification of the controversial Premier and her political party difficult.

Ever since the fall of the original National Fascist Party of Italy, and its successor the Republican Fascist party after the end of the Second World War, there have been several ‘successors’ to the defunct party. The Italian Social Movement, formed in 1946 by Giorgio Almirante, and the veterans of Italian Fascism, espoused and presented itself as the successor of Mussolini's ideas, while presenting anti-communism as its outward slogan to integrate itself into the budding Italian democracy, and to present itself favorably during the era of a deep ideological divide between the political right and the left. Regardless, in 1990, the party had transformed into a big-tent party, and now renamed themselves as National Alliance, or AN. However, after the merger of AN to the center-right party The People of the Freedom, a right wing split, the present Brothers of Italy, was formed in 2012. Although the heritage of the Fascist Party looks slim, it runs deep within the party. The Premier, Meloni herself, has drawn controversy for speaking favorably about Mussolini, and the prominent ‘neo-fascist’ Almirante, who had been a chef de cabinet in  Mussolini's Italian Social Republic, a Nazi puppet state set up in the north of Italy. Furthermore, in 2012, it was Meloni, who decided to add the ‘Tricolor Flame’ symbol into the party's flag, which is known for being a prominent Neo-Fascist symbol associated with the Italian Social Movement, and its Neo-Fascist views. Meloni`s own views; opposition of same-sex marriages, zero tolerance policy to immigrants, and her prior support of Russia under Putin, as well as her closeness with Prime Minister Viktor Orban, another controversial political figure for his far-right, strongmen views, have made it even more difficult, to not link the two together.

Although Meloni tries to show political moderation, and blur away the connections between her party and the defunct Fascist movements of old, it will be a long while, before any decisions and evaluations about her ‘Fascistic’ nature could be decided upon.