Echoes of Fascism as populism grows

[Strengthandhonour]

Echoes of Fascism as populism grows

Benito Mussolini is once again the poster boy of Italian politics, says robert fox

Against a background of economic delusion and concern about immigration, there is a new shift towards populism in European politics. In Denmark, the only party of the ruling coalition to actually gain a seat in November's election was the Denmark People's Party, which campaigns on immigration control. Elsewhere in Scandinavia and the Benelux countries, racist parties are gaining ground. In Germany, the neo-Nazi NPD party is winning increasing support in poor rural areas.
But it is in Italy, always one of the great laboratories of European politics, where populism has become the new rallying cry.
A poster has appeared for Forza Nuova - a right-wing party shamelessly cashing in on the martial imagery of Mussolini's Fascism - which uses a photo montage of Amanda Knox and Rudy Hermann Guede, the two foreigners
The polls say the next election will be a shoo-in for Berlusconi and no doubt for some unsavoury allies to the right

being held by police over the recent murder of British student Meredith Kercher in Perugia, to sell the line 'Against all drugs'.
The FN calls for a return to the old values of 'God, Fatherland and Family' and an end to distinctions between hard and soft drugs. It disapproves of inter-racial sex and demands the "immediate repatriation by force of every foreigner who is not in Italy for work useful to our nation". The echoes of the old regime are obvious.
Forza Nuova doesn't yet have a great draw at the polls - though it does have plenty of adherents prepared to use violence on Italy's football terraces - but two mainstream parties have been launched in Italy in the past six weeks that are also making populist appeals. Both are borrowing the slogans and appeals to fear of the more extremist parties, though dressing them up with greater subtlety - the great trick of Mussolini, who knew how to press the populist buttons and maintain the illusion of democracy.
The new Democratic Party is an amalgamation of the two leading parties at


the heart of Romano Prodi's coalition government, the Democratic Left (DS) and the unfortunately named rainbow grouping, the Daisy (Margherita).
The Democratic Party is led by the popular and populist Mayor of Rome, Walter Veltroni, who readily blames immigration for Rome's rise in crime. But he will be hard-pressed to beat off the challenge of the new political confection of media tycoon and former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi.
He has just launched a new party to replace his old Forza Italia party, with which he has been having his differences. Berlusconi held a festa in Milan's Piazza Duomo, complete with rippling life-size images of the leader, to launch the party and then, in true populist style, invited its members - of which he claims more than 1m already - to name it themselves.
On Sunday night he announced that the members had chosen to call it the People of Freedom party. "We have reached a historic turning point, nearly a revolution," he said. "Instead of making pacts between the heads
Forza Nuova is a right-wing party shamelessly cashing in on the martial imagery of Mussolini’s Fascism
of parties, we have decided to start off with the citizens".
According to the polls, the next election, whenever it comes, will be a shoo-in for Berlusconi and no doubt for some unsavoury allies to the right.
Unless Italian stand-up comedian and satirist Beppe Grillo gets his way. He declared September 8 'V' Day - standing for Vaffanculo Day, literally 'Fuck-off Day'. A huge rally in Bologna was a wild success, and within a couple of days 400,000 voters had signed a petition against Italy's entire political class.
Grillo's manifesto called for all 25 Italian MPs currently claiming immunity to stand trial, and for the party secretaries to be prevented from nominating government ministers in a coalition, in which their voice is more powerful than that of the prime minister. Grillo is trying to stop the creeping return of the bad old ways of fascism, and the rule by authority based on conformismo, and garantismo - conformity and guarantee of position underpinned by thuggish force. Fat chance.

FIRST POSTED DECEMBER 4, 2007

source: Fascism gains ground in modern Italy | Opinion | The First Post

[Arthur Gordon Pym]

Forza Nuova is a right-wing party shamelessly cashing in on the martial imagery of Mussolini’s Fascism of parties, we have decided to start off with the citizens".

I didn't know Forza Nuova was a party? Is it?

[Strengthandhonour]

Forza Nuova use to be part of the social alternative coalition party lead by Mussolini's granddaughter. I don't really know what they are up to now.

[Kernunnos]

This article is just a cobbled up pile of hurriedly made judgments that will surely procure this unscrupulous writer some readers, advancing a bit his career.


There is not a single grain of truth in what he says, perhaps a little bit of rage in teens against their commies professors that will result in some more moderate conservative votes, that's all the shift I modestly fathom here extorting political opinions to any poor soul I meet every day God send on this earth.

All the italian neo-fascist formations, deeply split among themselves, will not gain more than 1.5 percent of voters at most.

Undocumented article, juts good for the average anglo saxon distracted reader: Italy Pizza Spaghetti Piazza Navona Colyseum Mafia and now, out of the antique shop again, the Duce.

[Strengthandhonour]

We all know that when it comes to Italian politics, all foreign journalists seem to want to claim that Italian political parties are fascist. It is absolutely ridiculous.

[Kernunnos]

Originally Posted by Strengthandhonour

We all know that when it comes to Italian politics, all foreign journalists seem to want to claim that Italian political parties are fascist. It is absolutely ridiculous.

A nice way to write pieces that are easily sellable to american or british readers, Italy just makes out such a colorful country ...

I remember the pieces the US press was making before the 2006 elections, reporters would interview taxi drivers, waiters and some people, then concluding that Berlusconi was a criminal just by granting status of truth to popular opinion.

Squallid.

[Cirrus]

Originally Posted by Strengthandhonour

We all know that when it comes to Italian politics, all foreign journalists seem to want to claim that Italian political parties are fascist. It is absolutely ridiculous.

Indeed, Berlusconi was often decribed as a "fascist" by the French leftists between 2001 and 2006.

[Big Bwana]

Originally Posted by Strengthandhonour

Forza Nuova use to be part of the social alternative coalition party lead by Mussolini's granddaughter. I don't really know what they are up to now.

There is or was a branch near to where i live and thier first action upon renting out thier new office was to open up an inter connecting door to the bar next door.

They then two months later organized a trip up to Predapio,renting a bus for the occasion.
I saw some of the photos of the trip.......on the bus there was a cloud of smoke that reduced vision to about two feet....(i dont mean tobacco smoke either)......there were crates of beer and five litre bottles of wine galore....although i was told they had a bottle of coca cola for the ladies present...(Which turned out to contain 50% rum).

They were also involved in a fight on a garage forecourt near Perugia with some of perugias football fans...(The FN guys were all Lazio fans).

The office has since closed down as apparently no rent was ever paid.

I imagine Il Duce spinning in his tomb when that lot walked through the door to pay thier respects.......jokers.

[Menydh]

I didn't know that things were so awful. But judging from other sources, I don't predict much of a future for Forza Nuova.

[Kernunnos]

Most of our politicians, of every color, are awful dilettantes.