Una nuova agibilità politica: il neofascismo italiano da una prospettiva transnazionale (1945-51)

A significant number of studies has already pointed out that Italian fascism had the strength and the economic resources to stay alive despite the epilogue of WWII. Nevertheless the majority of these studies tends to not use neither a comparative approach nor a transnational one. On the contrary this article aims to cast new light on Italian neo-fascism by taking into account the global geo-political scenario and, in particular, by observing what happened to neo-fascist movements and their leaders in the UK and in France in the immediate post-war period (from 1945 to 1951). The author is perfectly aware of the differences among these case-studies, nevertheless he argues that such disparate political contexts can help to better understand Italian neo-fascism, and to better value the most important patterns of it and its influence and relevance in Europe. Finally, this article demonstrates that, despite these different political contexts, European neo-fascism was characterised by numerous common aspects and by leaders able to re-built and renewed the previous international network collapsed because of the war, thanks to the weak and ambiguous attitude of the European democracies.

Keywords: Neo-fascism; Msi; Transnational history; Comparative history.