Santiago Abascal and Giorgia Meloni: are Spain and Italy turning back to their fascist politics of the last century?
Antonio Sevilla, Giorgia Meloni, Macarena Olona and Santiago Abascal at a Vox rally in Marbella in 2022. Photo: Vox España via Wikimedia Commons
‘I certainly do not need to tell you that you, in your aspirations, can count on the full solidarity of Fascist Italy. I beg you, dear Franco, to accept my most cordial and comradely greetings.’ writes Benito Mussolini, Italian dictator, 25 August 1940, to Spanish dictator Francisco Franco.
Camaraderie between European right-wing populist parties is not unprecedented. From an affinity between the governments of Francisco Franco and Benito Mussolini to an indisputable solidarity between the current Italian Prime Minister and leader of Fratelli d’Italia, Giorgia Meloni, and the leader of Spain’s Vox, Santiago Abascal, the resurgence of national populism in Southern Europe has never been so prevalent.
In the 2022 Italian national elections, Fratelli d’Italia received the absolute majority, making the current Prime Minister of Italy arguably the most right-wing leader of Italy since Mussolini. Founded in 2012, as a breakout party of the neo-fascist Alleanza Nazionale, the party sports the tricolour flame as its symbol: a direct reference to the Italian Social Republic, which was a puppet state of Nazi Germany, headed by Mussolini.
Similarly, Vox was first publicly launched as a separation party of the centre-right Partido Popular during a press conference in Madrid in January 2014. The party saw a popularity surge in December 2018, as evidenced by the Andalusian elections in which it won 12 of the 109 seats available. Since these elections, Vox has continued its rapid growth and in November 2019 reached a milestone after becoming the third biggest party in Spain.
Vox has generated the support of many Iberians through its rejection of Catalan independence, which was a major affair in 2018. Moreover, illegal immigration from North Africa escalated this same year, with 40,000 migrants arriving between January and the end of September, which is more than the three previous years combined. Vox has even harnessed this opportunity with promises in their propaganda leaflets such as ‘We will close the centres for young unaccompanied foreigners’.
Unlike Spain, Italy’s politics works with a coalition government, under the pretence that this reduces the likelihood of a dictatorship reoccurring. Meloni and Fratelli d’Italia won the absolute majority of seats in the 2022 election, making her head of the coalition.
Like Vox, Meloni gained support by promising to curb illegal immigration into Italy. ‘Italy has a massive problem with immigration. Meloni offers an alternative and is decisive about stopping illegal immigrants. We are all very happy with her,' relates a resident of Italy’s Abruzzo region. However, Meloni’s anti-immigration stance is extreme. As well as stating ‘Yes to secure borders, no to mass immigration’, she has been widely accused of Islamophobic hate speech.
‘I hope our victory opens the way for Vox in Spain,’ announces Giorgia Meloni. The relationship between Vox and Fratelli d’Italia seems close-knit; Meloni has participated in a Vox rally in Marbella, and Abascal congratulated Fratelli d’Italia on their 2022 win with a tweet: ‘@GiorgiaMeloni has shown the way for a Europe that is proud, free and made up of sovereign nations, capable of cooperating for the security and prosperity of all. Forward @fratelliditalia.’
The far right is forming solid relations across Europe, with links between Fratelli d’Italia and Lega Nord for Italy, Vox for Spain, Le Rassemblement National and Reconquête for France, Law and Justice for Poland and Fidesz for Hungary. This bond is far weaker with European left-wing parties and therefore acts as a catalyst for right-wing politics to flourish, creating an unnerving resemblance with the original rise of fascism in Europe.
But why are people so ignorant to right-wing politics and the dangers of a dictatorship, particularly in Spain and Italy, which experienced such dark times under similar regimes?
Spain’s approach to the past is unusual. La ley del olvido, or the Amnesty Law, was created in 1977, aiming to forgive and forget Spain’s past in order to allow Spaniards to move forward. Because of this law and the resulting lack of discourse, many Spaniards are not aware of the terrors that Franco and right-wing nationalism inflicted upon their homeland and people. Even Abascal seems ambivalent. He states that Vox ‘does not have a position on Franco’, yet has also accused Pedro Sánchez, Spain’s Prime Minister, of presiding over ‘the worst government in 80 years’ which according to critics, recalls the infamous neo-Francoist phrase ‘Life was better under Franco’.
Italy is different. A significant proportion of Italians look back upon Mussolinist politics with nostalgia; they believe that he offered Italy a chance in scarce times, making a name for the country. Meloni herself is guilty of this, describing the fascist dictator as ‘a good politician, in that everything he did, he did for Italy’. Moreover, Meloni uses the Mussolinist slogan ‘God, homeland, family’. Critics insist that her policies differ from the past dictator’s - ‘She is not a female Mussolini’, argues Denis MacShane, yet the parallels are at the very least uncomfortable.
With the Spanish general election set to take place in 2023 and the European unity of the far right mirroring the 1920s and 30s, the likelihood of an extremist government in Spain no longer seems a distant possibility. Extreme unemployment rates, a lack of economic prosperity and increasing immigration, amongst other issues, are directing Spain towards the politics of its Mediterranean neighbour. The fascist rise in Europe in the last century was stimulated by similar issues, with history evidencing that during periods like this, people seek strong leadership and focus on national rather than international issues.
But the same question prevails: how can current politics learn from the history of fascism when past dictators continue to be idolised or erased?