Platt,
you give me occasion to write about my country. I like it, from time to
time, as you know. But don't take my words as the truth. Just, my opinion.
I don't know that recently Benito's popularity had particularly raised.
Indeed, there has always been a certain amount of "nostalgics". You must
know I live a few dozens miles off the place where he was born and he is
currently buried. More than you can imagine, that small town among the
hills, Predappio, has always been the destination of many people, from Italy
and from abroad. Mostly old fascists, but also younger guys born after WWII.
Nothing worrying, really. They visit the tomb, buy some souvenir, and go.
Quietly. I did not know of black-shirted guards (I guess they are few dudes
posing for snapshots). About the calendar, I really don't know... I'm pretty
sure the Pirelli calendar is more popular :-)
Politically, the fascist party has been banned since 1945. For more than 40
years a small party ("Italian Social Movement") oscillating between 5% and
10%, has been representing the instances of the extreme rights in our
parliament. Always as minority. No party wanted to deal with them; IMO
rightly, as fascists killed thousands of activists of any ideal (liberals,
Catholics, socialists, communists....).
One of their main aims was just restoring the memory of those young fascists
who decided to fight beside their "Dux" up to their death against the
invaders of Italy. I have already said that WWII in Italy has been a civil
war. Actually, the anti-fascist rhetoric defined patriots the antifascist
partisans, and criminals the fascists. IMO a more correct definition would
be that someone was on the right side, someone else on the wrong one.
Fascists committed terrible crimes, indeed. The great majority, however, was
convinced to fight for a better Italy. Of course I'm not supporting any
viewpoint or action of fascism.
After the Berlin Wall was razed, everything has changed. Italian communists
finally renounced their name and became "Left Democrats" (they had already
abandoned Moscow since the events of Prague 1968) and joined the European
socialism (Blair, Jospin, Schroeder and co.) But they refused to join the
former Italian socialist party. The fear of communism, and the taboo of
fascism, that had been keeping the majority of the votes blocked for 50
years on a centrist/socialist coalition, seemed disappeared as well. Even
the judges and the press became more courageous, and a sort of revolution
happened in early 90's, when the whole centrist and socialist leading class
was cancelled by scandals. The Left Democrats, after 50 years of opposition,
seemed to be the only decent party on the scene to take the rule.
Here comes "I-am-the-man" Berlusconi, a genius indeed. He had the idea to
restore the fear of communism, claiming that actually the Left Democrats are
the young kids of Stalin (and other exaggerations like that), and that he is
the salvation of the fatherland. He founds his own party, beginning a
terrific campaign from his media empire. Picks up a bunch of Catholics just
to prevent any anathema from the Vatican. And manages to convince the former
extreme rightist "Social Movement" to change its name as well into "National
Alliance", dropping any reference to the old regime and trying to join, in
Europe, moderate parties like the French Gaullists. I think you would like
them, Platt. They support the right to bear arms, they are anti-abortion,
and against any drug legalization. Of course, they also support the
traditional family, and deny any help to non-married parents, not to speak
of homosexuals... It is also the only party supporting -not completely- the
death penalty. In my opinion, even Mussolini was more progressist than
them. Fortunately, they can't reach the 15%... for the moment, at least.
The situation now is that Berlusconi is the premier, Fini (the leader of
National Alliance) is the vice-premier. And half Italians are hypnotized by
this populist leader that founds his popularity on emotions and promises
more than on facts. On the other hand, the lefts are not able to express a
decent leader. They had one, Prodi, and dropped him for some stupid internal
conflict. The Latin mot says "Promoveatur ut moveatur" [hope it is
correct:-) ]: promoted, to Europe, to be moved, from Italy.
The liberal intellectuals say that as in the 20's Mussolini was supported by
the rich families as the "New Man" to keep at bay socialism, today
Berlusconi is repeating that path. Probably an exaggeration, even if there
are similarities. Indeed the facts during the G8 meeting in Genoa show how
our new government likes the cudgel more than diplomacy. Fortunately, we
are in the European Union, and I think it prevents any possible
fundamentalist drift of the member nations.
Meanwhile, the procession to Predappio went on and goes on regularly. A
great Italian novelist, Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, in his famous novel
"Il Gattopardo" (that was imagined in Sicily during the passage from the
Borbone's kingdom to the unified Italy) writes that in Sicily "we need that
everything changes in order to let the things as they were before". The same
goes for today's Italy. Everything has changed and, more or less, everything
is like it was.
One thing has changed. Today it is more easy to look at the facts of fascism
and WWII with a bit more detachment. The word "Fascism" is not anymore a
taboo, and indeed all the media offer a critical view of the period. Many
books also are exploring that age. I hope we finally will draw the balance
of our history and look forward.
Don't worry. The popularity rate of Fascism was not 0 yesterday and is not
100 today. About your local paper, I think that, as usual, things happen
only when the media say they happen. Media are just selling sensation.
Today, with this government, it makes indeed more sensation to show the
aspects of Italy that recall fascism.
Thanks for reading,
Marco
----- Original Message -----
From: "Platt Holden" <pholden@sc.rr.com>
To: <moq_discuss@moq.org>
Sent: Monday, March 25, 2002 4:21 PM
Subject: MD Fascist comeback?
> Hi Marco:
>
> I was surprised to read in our local paper this morning that Mussolini
> is enjoying renewed popularity in Italy. The article said a calendar
> featuring photos of the Mussolini era is at or near the top of the best-
> seller list and that black-shirted guards are on duty at his gravestone
> 24 hours a day.
>
> Is this another case of American journalism spreading disinformation?
> I rely on you for "the truth" about this.
>
> Platt
>
>
>
>
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