Abuses of the past by the Italian far right: a first assessment of the Meloni government

Abstract

ABSTRACT Collective memory plays an important part in the ideational and cultural battlegrounds that characterise current European politics. The mobilisation and manipulation of the memory of Nazi-fascism, in particular, is a growing political and academic concern, related to the rise of far right parties throughout the continent and the mainstreaming of their ideas and positions. Focusing on the case of Italy, this article examines three recent examples of abuses of the country’s past committed by Fratelli d’Italia, a far right party with a direct lineage to fascism, and the pivot of the current Italian government. By analysing the three episodes in light of a conceptual triad of abuses of the dark past – historical reassessment; fake history; evocation-cum-denial of fascist connections – the article shows how post-fascist FdI has engaged in the whole gamut of memory abuses rapidly, and shortly after rising to power. This in turn raises concerns about the effects of such mnemonic manipulations on the cultural underpinning of Italian democracy, given the party’s current position of political, institutional, and cultural influence.