Italy
2023 was the first year of Meloni’s government, with the most far-right-oriented political majority ever in the Italian Republic.
Despite government attempts to present itself as reliable and open to political dialogue, other cases of authoritarian approach shine through institutional arrogance and repressive decrees on security. Favourite targets of nationalist parties, such as Brothers of Italy (FdI) or Lega, are always migrants and NGOs engaged in rescue in the Mediterranean basin.
Current Situation
Introduction
2023 was the first year of Meloni’s government, with the most far-right-oriented political majority ever in the Italian Republic.
Despite government attempts to present itself as reliable and open to political dialogue, other cases of authoritarian approach shine through institutional arrogance and repressive decrees on security. Favourite targets of nationalist parties, such as Brothers of Italy (FdI) or Lega, are always migrants and NGOs engaged in rescue in the Mediterranean basin. Against them, Interior Minister Piantedosi launched a new act, assigning a port of disembarkation to humanitarian missions far from the rescue. Even more scandalous was the fact that the measure was adopted in the aftermath of the shipwreck in front of the coast of Cutro (Crotone, southern Italy) with about 90 migrants dead, in such a failure of help with so many omissions made by authorities, that oppositions asked for his resignation.
In this political atmosphere, the first regional elections since the settlement of the Meloni’s government took place in Sardinia, whereby a few hundred votes, the right-wing candidate, chosen directly by the prime minister from her Fratelli d’Italia party members, was defeated by candidate Alessandra Todde, expressed by the liberal democratic and progressive opposition in a coalition of PD-M5S.
Status of the far-right in the country
Just within its first year, Meloni’s government has shown a drift towards pervasive familism, retrenchments in rights and welfare, rampant corruption, rising investigations on both ministers and members of the majority, last but not least betrayal of electoral promises ( https://lespresso.it/c/inchieste/2024/1/19/il-cerchio-tragico-ecco-tutti-i-balilla-di-giorgia-meloni/49701). All in all such messes unveil the inconsistency of the far-right with republican institutions. However, these blunders seem part of a strategy to dismantle democratic and constitutional pillars.
The anniversary of three young neo-fascist militants’ deaths in Acca Larentia in 1978 was the pretext for a squad rally of a few hundred far-right exponents at the beginning of January. Despite the nostalgic and dictatorial parade, a few weeks later, the Court of Cassation declared that the typical Roman salute of Mussolini’s regime does not represent a crime in the sole case of commemoration.
A similar case occurred at the end of July when the Antiterrorism Investigation Department (DIA) blocked and put the lawyer Stefano Menicacci and Romeo Domenico under house arrest. Both of them are accused of giving false information to the public prosecutor, aggravated by having lied in a massacre case. Searches were also carried out in Adriano Tilgher’s house, a leading exponent of the dissolved organisation ‘National Vanguard’, convicted in 1981 for the reorganisation of the fascist party.
Making the ongoing repressive drift even more evident always in Tuscany, at the end of February, police carried out violent charges in Pisa and Florence against peaceful student demonstrations for the cease-fire in Gaza. The toll of the attack on defenceless students by the police forces resulted in the hospitalisation of 15 minors for the injuries they suffered (https://www.tuscantrends.com/legal-action-in-pisa-targets-peace-protest-police-attacks/ ).
Status of antifascists in the country
Beyond the initiatives of anti-fascist organisations and militant collectives, an important social and trade-unionist reference in the clash with the predatory system at an economic level is represented by the workers’ collective of the GKN factory in Florence. For over two years, it has been pursuing a dispute to redeem jobs and defend them from the company’s closure, which has decided to relocate. Their project of ecological reconversion of a socially integrated factory has led to a cultural convergence, which brings together environmental demands with those of students, workers, transfeminists, and, therefore, anti-fascists, so much to organise the only literary festival on the working class in Europe.
Referring particularly to international antifascist issues, several months after her arrest, the case of Ilaria Salis, the 39-years-old teacher from Monza detained in substandard conditions in Budapest, has become highly symbolic, also in the perspective of the next European elections, calling into question the very idea of European values. Together with other antifascist militants, Ilaria is accused of participating in an assault against two neo-Nazis during the so-called “day of honour” on the 11th of February each year, representing a gathering of nostalgic Hitlerites, who converge in Budapest from all over Europe to commemorate the comrades in SS uniform defeated by the Red Army almost eighty years ago. It therefore appears that crimes related to the glorification of fascism are in no way prohibited by Hungarian criminal legislation, that instead mistreated antifascists like her. On the contrary, the struggle against such far-right drift has been seen as a threat to the Hungarian state, which has very little of the rule of law. Therefore, she was immediately seen as a hostage, even more so when, at the end of January, she was brought to trial with her hands and feet shackled by chains, hence in a degrading treatment (https://www.ilmessaggero.it/en/the_ilaria_salis_case_a_step_towards_her_release_from_hungary-7908223.html?refresh_ce ).
Historic developments
On the centenary of Matteotti’s murder, with the prominent socialist spokesman at the Italian Parliament killed by fascist ‘black shirts’, during the second year of Giorgia Meloni’s government, the Roman salute is essentially cleared for nostalgic commemorations, which also took part in the recent past.
One of the purposes of the neofascist international network and its supporters became evident with the declassification of secret files on the British role in the OTAN-backed anti-Communist operation ‘Gladio’. According to the British ambassador in Rome, John Ashton, the presidential crisis committee responsible for trying to rescue Moro was part of the notorious P2 – the “subversive Masonic lodge” of political elites loyal to Gladio. Only in 1993 did public opinion learn through ongoing trials how the United States and the British supplied ammunition to Gladio agents to foment bloody acts of terror throughout Italy. Not by chance, FN leader Roberto Fiore’s file on his extradition to the UK is instead still classified as secret.
International relationships
Ukrainian war scenario continues to play a role of far-right attraction for military training and transnational contacts. Indeed, national media tend to focus less and less on the Italian participation in the war, regarding weapons delivery and foreign fighters. Nonetheless, there is evidence of a connection between some members of northern-Italy groups and the neo-Nazi Denis “White Rex” Nikitin. The Russian right-wing extremist, who is now fighting for Ukraine, profits from circuits such as ‘White Rex’ for the organisation of MMA fight meetings, covering Azov formations in a closer connection between places, such as the ‘Reconquista Club’ in Kyiv, as well as the Italian neo-fascist organisation CPI, that hosted rallies at the local Area 19 north of Rome.
Always CPI, at the very beginning of summer, reached Syria for an institutional meeting with Bashar-Al-Assad’s government, “collecting words of appreciation and thanks for our activities”, as the CPI spokesman, Gianluca Iannone said, praising the removal of international sanctions against the Assad regime, together with a long-lasting connection since 2013, with the foundation of European Front for Syria.
Within the EU goes on the standing connection between CPI and their Greek comrades, with a group of Rome-based neofascist organisations getting arrested at Athens airport on its way to take part in an extreme right-wing rally to commemorate the death of two militants of the now-disbanded neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party.
Another channel of european neofascist network is located in Spain, with CPI joining another neofascist organisation called ‘Alfonse I’ in Spain to demonstrate against the dismantling of the fascist monument called ‘Pyramid of the Italians’ in Santander (https://www.adnkronos.com/la-spagna-vuole-abbattere-la-piramide-de-los-italianos-casapound-protesta-a-burgos_UWDA1OSfGHgeqHRYdFtMh ). Victimism, as well as revisionism, are not new rhetoric tools within neofascist propaganda at all, trying in this way to redeem the Italian invasion’s reputation.
Always in Spain, in April, the Italian National Movement – Network of Patriots supported the ‘Falange Española ’ against judicial trials for commemorating Antonio Primo de Rivera, the Spanish dictator’s son.
Equally crucial for the Italian far-right government are the commitments on the international and European levels, on the one hand, with the presidency of the G7 open amid internal controversies over the block on military supplies to Kyiv, proposed by the leader of the League Matteo Salvini, and on the other hand, the disputes on political alliances given the next European Parliament elections.
To get credit for rehabilitating her government from accusations of nationalist and anti-European extremism and profiting from RRF’s new resources, Giorgia Meloni attempted to seem constructive with EU institutions, following economic Draghi’s agenda and aligning her coalition to a pro-OTAN position on the war in Ukraine.
Political landscape
Last July, Giorgia Meloni, despite her institutional role, attended a rally of far-right party VOX in Valencia, once again explicitly supporting her Spanish partners within the European Conservatives and Reformists Group at EP.
The alliance with Orban within the ECR is undoubtedly not a good business card for Meloni and her masked Euro-skeptics. Despite this, relationships with the EU Commission seem more relaxed than expected, giving sufficient arguments to the League’s accuse of the moderate approach and the alleged betrayal of the Prime Minister to far-right issues.
Turning into the European area, at the beginning of February, the main liberal democratic party, EPP, warned Meloni to avoid alliances with Viktor Orban in order not to hinder a coalition for the next European elections. The possible entry of the Hungarian leader into Meloni’s European Conservatives and Reformists Group would be considered a “serious obstacle to dialogue, undermining the ECR’s influence on the direction of EU politics”, in EPP general secretary Manfred Weber’s opinion. The EPP’s openness to ECR is set on firm conditions, such as being pro-EU, pro-Ukraine, and in support of the rule of law. Moreover, a very similar reaction from the Popular Party could be triggered by the recent far-right and xenophobic French leader Eric Zemmour’s participation in ECR, with the incorporation of the only MEP of “Reconquete!” into Meloni’s group. It confirms a trend of FdI, that of enlargement to the right-wing parties considered more extreme in Brussels, a trend that the EPP does not like, perceiving it with greater detachment in the ranks of the EPP (https://www.euractiv.com/section/elections/news/eus-hard-right-slowly-gears-up-elections-campaign-to-charm-epp/ ).
Media landscape
In the Reporters Without Borders ranking, Italy is in 41st place for press freedom. The concentration of editorial properties in a few groups and the connivance of various newspapers with political parties weigh above all. Berlusconi’s legacy of numerous conflicts of interest between political power and editorial ownership now returns with the far-right Meloni government.
Indeed, given the next round of elections for the European and administrative elections in June, a new law has been approved on a “level playing field”, i.e. on the methods of managing electoral propaganda, excluding institutional positions from the calculation of political spaces, with the possibility therefore for the government to exceed the deadlines, to the detriment of the opposition parties. The union of public TV journalists, UsiGrai, has protested against this disparity in treatment. The guarantor authority AGCOM supports the complaint, preventing executive members from speaking in the talk shows without time limits and cross-examination.
Like many previous governments, Meloni has “parcelled out” the public broadcasters, selecting trusted people at the top decision-making levels and on the boards of directors. Compounding the situation are online intimidation campaigns, often orchestrated against those who investigate organised crime and corruption. Finally, around twenty journalists were under the protection of the police after being subjected to intimidation and attacks, while complaints from ministers and members of the far-right majority against investigative journalists are also growing.
Finally, the bill approved on 13 February in the first reading in the Senate also contains a dense package of rules on the Code of Procedure. It starts with the intervention in wiretaps, introducing new constraints on disseminating the contents of the wiretaps and the strengthened ban on their publication.
Financial landscape
Italian economic growth slows down in the second half of 2023 to -0.3%, slightly lower than the 0.9% of the first quarter, representing worrying economic data due to rising inflation and people’s loss of purchasing power, also compared to the trend in the rest of the European Union.
The rising inflation and new taxes set by Meloni’s first budget law already at the beginning of its term put the population under economic pressure. They enlarged the poverty rate in the country. At the end of October, the far-right Giorgia Meloni’s government finally managed to bring her second national budget law (NADEF), with a value of approximately 24 billion, to the Parliament for its approval – financing the public expenditure mainly in deficit (15.7 billion) and then through so-called ‘reviews’ of social spending.
In 2024, the reduction in financial allocations for ministries exceeds 821 million euros, and it will rise to around 900 million in 2026, for a total of around 2.5 billion in cuts over the three-year period.
Furthermore, to try to conceal the seriousness of the economic situation with this reform, at the same time, Meloni’s government published the constitutional bill for the establishment of a premiership regime for the direct election of the prime minister with a very high majority bonus (https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2023/11/24/giorgia-meloni-wants-the-prime-minister-to-be-elected-by-universal-suffrage_6284765_4.html ).
Reports
Quarterly Reports
Quarterly reports give in-depth insights into the most pressing recent social and political developments in each country as they pertain to the local far-right networks and their international allies.
Key Developments
Black month of far-right international
Still awaiting an institutional resolution by the government, in order to ban the neofascist organization New Force, Italy. Thus already condemned both for discriminative propaganda and for several aggressions all over the country, last but not least on 9th October 2021 at CGIL main seat in Rome during a * ‘No Greenpass*’ demonstration. Apart from the ongoing trial and the two main figures of FN still under arrest, a tiny group of italian neofascists took anyway part to the far-right nationalist rally in Varsaw on the 12th Nov. 2021 with one of their flag clearly evident in the pictures of the demonstration. In the same period another member of this organization, located in Gallarate, in Lombardia region, has been sentenced to 15 years of jail, because of illegal international weapons traffic. Police investigation started last year after the discovery of a hidden armory in a private airplane-hub, with even a rocket-launcher among the weapons. The neofascist, who was even candidated at the national elections for FN in 2001, tried to excuse himself, pretending to be only a collectionist.
Moreover a journalist investigation has discovered deep connection between FN leader, Roberto Fiore, and the Pro Vita ultra-catholic and conservative organization, which used to deal with the far-right group for public campaigns and other affairs. Changing the sadly famous motto: “God, homeland and “…money, these relationships converge in common European objectives such as the “fight” against homosexual unions or abortion laws, two issues so dear to the pro-life movement capable of fielding its huge economic heritage, derived largely from private contributions, to pursue its goals. Thepolice discovered that Roberto Fiore sold in 2009 to Brandi and his wife an apartment located in Rome for a sum of 143 thousand euros. The property, located in the northern part of the capital, is considered the administrative headquarters of New Force, the European APF party and other companies linked to Fiore.
Antoher dark shadow in the region regarding far-right international initiatives was the visit of the President of Brazil, Jair Messias Bolsonaro, at the beginning of November, in occasion of G20 summit in Rome, then enduring his stay around Italy, precisely in Padua and then in Pistoia, where he was even welcome by local authorities, though with a certain embarassment by other institutions and with counter-demonstrations of social movements, natives in Italy and public opinion in general. In Tuscany nor the major of Pistoia, nor other insitutions took part to the celebration with Bolsonaro; and only Lega leader, Matteo Salvini, joined him. In the meanwhile about 300 people gathered in the centre of Pistoia to rally against the far-right brazilian leader, denouncing deforestation in the Amazon under his government and for his management of the COVID-19 pandemic, also accusing him of dictatorial behaviour. Thougher clashes between protestors and police happened few days before in Padua, where President Bolsonaro was awarded the honorary citizenship, due to the birth town of some of his ancestors.
Another recent ‘black international connection’ between Italy and latin-America has been the recent arrest of a former nazist official, Mr. Döhring Falkenberg, operating after WWII in the ‘Colonia Dignidad’ detention center under Pinochet regime in Chile, then accused of crimes against humanity and a fugitive for 16 years in Germany. Last September he was arrested during his holidays in Tuscany at Forte dei Marmi, being kept in prison awaiting extradition to Chile. Unfortunately italian authorities decided precautionary measures alternative to jail for the 76 old years man, imposing him only the daily obligation to signature at the police-station, which didn’t last long before his disappearance.
Key Developments
On the 9th October 2021, the previous day to administrative ballots in many italian big-cities (such as Rome, Miland, Turin, etc.) several No-Green-Pass demonstrations have been organized all over Italy. In Rome the standing infiltration attempt by neofascist groups has succeded in leading members of far-right New Force (FN) and other tens of partecipants, storming against the Italian General Confederation of Workers (CGIL) trade union headquarter. The incapacity of authorities to manage public security during the demonstration has allowed a devastation of the ground floor of CGIL seat, with offices and fornitures ravaged.
Luckily none of the employees was on saturday afternoon on duty, so the squad attack hasn’t caused injuries. In the videos filmed during the assault, the national leader of FN and former neofascist terrorist, Roberto Fiore, toghether with his local ras, Luciano Castellino, speak on megaphones to call upon a dimonstrative action against trade unions, guilty in their opinions to have accepted the government will on the obligation of green-pass on the workplace. Police investigations led to the arrest of the FN chiefs and six other participants in the squad raid.
The attack to CGIL trade union recall the political violence practiced by the fascist fighting bands (‘fasci di combattimento’) in 1921, a sort of symbolic revival of the eve of the advent of Mussolini’s dictatorship in Italy.
The episode has brought widespread solidarity to CGIL with sit-ins at the trade union seats all over Italy on the following sunday, mainly organized by institutional antifascist associations – such as Italian National Partisans’ Association (ANPI) or Italian Cultural and Ricreative Association (ARCI). All political parties even from right-wing Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy (FdI) and Matteo Salvini’s League (Lega) have condemned the violent attack, though that the latters avoid to acknowledge the neofascist matrix and the conseguent recognition of fascism as a crime. On the other hand, moderate and left-wing parties have immediately proposed a ban against FN as a criminal organization. Due to the sensitive timeframe, regarding also the administrative ballots, the political debate has turned the attack into an argument to denounce dangerous connections between neofascist organizations and right-wing political parties. However, the discussion in the Parliament, taking place after the administrative elections, at the end hasn’t led to the banning of neo-fascist organizations, in order to safeguard the large-coalition Mario Draghi’s government.
Apart from the severity of the assault, the episode is emblematic from an international point of view to understand the links between ultranationalist, sovranist movements and their influence also on the decisions of democratic institutions.
