Italy chooses a party with a neo-fascist legacy
But Giorgia Meloni’s win is less decisive than it seems
Beside a road winding into the Apuan Alps sits the village of Sant’Anna di Stazzema. In 1944 ss troops and Fascist paramilitaries massacred several hundred people here, including children, to deter collaboration with the resistance. In Italy’s general election on September 25th, Stazzema, the municipality that includes Sant’Anna, helped elect a senator from the Brothers of Italy (fdi), a party descended from a post-war neo-fascist group. The fdi’s candidate took 49.6% of the votes.
This article appeared in the Europe section of the print edition under the headline “The F-word”
Europe October 1st 2022
More from Europe
A dispute over old war crimes strains Polish-Ukrainian relations
The beneficiary is Russia
Austria could soon have a first far-right leader since 1945
Herbert Kickl of the Freedom Party could be the next head of government
Europe has lots of lithium, but struggles to get it out of the ground
Its targets for strategic autonomy look hard to meet
Spain’s government marks 50 years since Franco died
Opponents say it is the birth of democracy that should be commemorated
How extremist politics became mainstream in France
Jean-Marie Le Pen paved the way for his daughter, Marine