PGHIMC - Pittsburgh Independent Media Center

Fascism in Italy?
by stephen donahue Thursday, Apr. 17, 2008 at 5:56 PM

Berlusconi is back and he has promised cabinet posts to the fascist Northern League. Calls immigrants ‘an army of evil’

With the world teetering on the brink of major economic collapse and with food riots and protests occurring in many countries, including Italy where high world wheat process are driving up the cost of pasta, some people will be looking for simple answers and scapegoats. In hard times politicians who can control the blame factor and promise a lot win elections.

Hard times in Italy have led to a major victory for right wing forces there. Silvio Berlusconi has gotten himself elected as Italy’s Prime Minister again. The Italian Parliament is now controlled by the right wing People of Freedom party and the extreme right wing Northern League to whom Berlusconi has promised two cabinet posts. The only opposition will be from the just left of centre Democratic Party. All of the leftist parties are gone from Parliament. This says Berlusconi will allow for quick action on his platform. Berlusconi wants to implement major structural ‘reforms’ in Italy including a streamlining of the law making process.

First on Berlusconi’s plate is dealing with immigrants. In a move right out of the Northern League’s playbook he said that he will close Italy’s borders and he called immigrants an ‘army of evil.’ He said that he will set up ‘camps’ to identify foreign people. He said that he will increase the police forces in Italy to act as an ‘army of good’ to fight the ‘army of evil’.

This is fascism -- a simple worldview where there is good and evil and nothing in between. Sending suspected foreigners to camps (concentration?) will allow for determining who is good and who is evil. Berlusconi’s xenophobic intentions are finding favour in a population that is hurting and where many are looking for easy answers.

Look at the USA. Look at how quickly after 9/11 people jumped on board George Bush’s fascist ‘we are good -- they are evil’ world view. Look at how quickly people believed George Bush’s lies about Iraq and supported an unprovoked invasion of that country. How is it that people in the USA are allowing their leaders to use torture on suspected ‘evil terrorist’ detainees? Look at how xenophobic policy is being implemented all over the USA where local governments are making all sorts of anti-foreigner laws.

After an incident like the 9/11 attack or the burning of the Reichstag in Berlin in 1933 people can be more easily manipulated by their governments and politicians. After 9/11 many people were willing to suspend their ideals and common sense to go along with the US government’s simple minded, illegal and atrocious war on evil. After the Reichstag fire the Nazi Party was able to successfully get a large number of the German people to suspend their ideals and common sense and blame foreigners for the fire. 9/11 helped George Bush accumulate massive executive power and the Reichstag fire was pivotal in bringing the Nazi Party into power.

All over the world these days it seems like people are looking for simple answers to complex issues. This has led to a rise in fundamentalist thinking in world religions and governmental bodies and it can easily lead into full blow fascism. Fundamentalism always sees the enemy as some evil thing or some evil group(s) of people out there. Destroy them and all will be well; it’s just that simple.

Smart and ambitious politicians are good at playing this game. Louisiana’s autocratic Governor Huey Long scored big by attacking evil Standard Oil. Thoughtful people can see that life is more complex than simply going after Standard Oil, or Communists or Muslims or whatever group or thing the government wants us to hate at any given time. Will Berlusconi be successful in scapegoating Italy’s immigrant population for the county’s problems? Will a majority of Italians suspend their common sense and their ideals and join his xenophobic campaign? It remains to be seen.