In writing what follows, I want to ask a question rather than answer it and this question should be asked. If Berlusconi’s party, the People of Freedom, is fascist, that would render it unconstitutional. The twelfth final provision of the Italian Constitution written in 1947 states:

‘It shall be forbidden to reorganise, under any form whatsoever, the dissolved Fascist party.’ See page 40 of http://www.quirinale.it/qrnw/statico/costituzione/pdf/costituzione_inglese_01.pdf

The People of Freedom certainly does not take the form of a fascist party from the first half of the twentieth century, but is it an updated version thereof? Perhaps we should first think by comparison of the extent to which communist, socialist and even Christian democratic parties have changed since the 1940s. They are all very different beasts compared to the past. The modern incarnation of the far left is the anti-globalisation movement perhaps mixed with residual militant trade unionism. That kind of leftwing politics is radical but very different from the Stalinism of the 1940s. It is nonetheless communist as many of its supporters are happy to admit in countries like France, Italy, Greece or Portugal. Christian democratic parties like the CDU in Germany and CD&V in Belgium have likewise changed from being closely linked to the church and traditional values to being modern, mixed parties competing in a secular society.

The new fascism of 2009 would also differ significantly from that of 1939. Why do we think that fascist parties would not have evolved? If fascism survives today in another form, it should be subject to the same restrictions that had been applied after 1945 in Italy and Germany. Those four words: ‘under any form whatsoever’ were drafted with the intent of giving maximum judicial discretion to the Italian Constitutional Court to act against any recurrence of fascism in a different form.

Let us look the People of Freedom in terms of style and history. In the last years, Berlusconi has personally attacked the judiciary and the media he does not control, delegitimising the authority of the guarantors of the rule of law and freedom of information. If he loses an election, as in 2006, he accuses the opposition of ballot rigging for which he is given unquestioned media coverage by his own channels. He paints even his most moderate opponents as “communists” thereby undermining their legitimacy even to be an opposition in the eyes of his own supporters. This is typical behaviour of a rightwing authoritarian. His real control of the media (rather than his fantasy that it is all controlled by “communists”) is pervasive and is of the same dimensions as that possessed by any authoritarian regime.

One of the components of the People of Freedom is the former neo-fascist party, the MSI (Italian Social Movement). This was founded in 1946 by Giorgio Almirante, an advisor to Mussolini’s Minister of Culture in the collaborationist RSI (Italian Social Republic) regime of 1943-45. The acronym MSI represented continuity with the RSI and is said to have stood for ‘Mussolini you are immortal’. The Italian Constitution was not applied against this party since it was not viewed as a threat. Many former members of the MSI now in the People of Freedom are fascist in outlook. In 2006 Alessandra Mussolini, when confronted on television by a leftwing transvestite, said that it was ‘better to be a fascist than a poof’. In September 2008, Berlusconi’s Defence Minister called for the commemoration of the pro-nazi paratroopers of the RSI regime as patriots. Meanwhile the Mayor of Rome, also a member of the People of Freedom, refused to condemn the fascist experience prior to 1938 when the racial laws were introduced, on the grounds ‘many people signed up to it in good faith’. Presumably it was acceptable to repress and torture opposition supporters, gas thousands of Ethiopians in 1936, and have the Italian Air Force carpet bomb Guernica during the Spanish Civil War, all of which happened before the enactment of the racial laws.

Finally there is the main campaign advertisement of the People of Freedom from the elections of 2008. This is a video entitled: ‘Meno male che Silvio c’è’, or thank goodness for Silvio. What is sinister is the backdrop of the final part of the video at precisely 3 minutes. This is only the most famous fascist era totalitarian monument in Italy: the Italian Pavilion at the World Expo of 1942 that never happened. Of the thousands of squares and palaces in Italy that could provide a scenic backdrop for one’s theme tune, the selection of this one cannot have been an accident:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXf-YbsSh0Y

Imagine if the French Minister of Defence or Mayor of Paris made remarks about the Vichy regime similar to those made about Italy under fascism. Imagine if the backdrop to an advertisement for the German CDU were the Nuremburg stadium. We cannot imagine this, but this is what happens in Italy’s main party of government. Let us just remember that twelfth final provision of the Italian Constitution:

‘It shall be forbidden to reorganise, under any form whatsoever, the dissolved Fascist party.’