Fascism, Populism and Italy of League and Brothers of Italy

In recent years, Fascism and Populism have been two words that have been constantly used in the democratic public sphere, most often without specifying their meaning. The inflation of the use of these terms is problematic. In this article, the author proposes general and operational definitions of fascism and populism in order to explore the interactions between fascism and populism, taking care to take into account both the uniqueness and the plurality of these two political phenomena. He then endeavors to identify the continuities and ruptures of the conglomerate that they may have formed in the past and that eventually they still form one and the other. He explores also the links between the most contemporary right-wing populists and fascism. Finally, it examines the paradigmatic case study of Italy, the country that invented fascism, and, to use the formula of Italian political scientist Marco Tarchi, “promised land of populism”, by studying two parties, Matteo Salvini’s League and Brothers of Italy by Giorgia Meloni now President of the Council of Ministers. About this party, he observes its affiliations with populism, fascism, neofascism and post-fascism but also its evolution towards a radical right, national-conservative, even traditionalist.