In recent years, far-right parties have gained ground in most national parliaments. This is the case in Italy, where the extreme right (Fratelli d'Italia, the Lega, and Forza Italia) won the general election in September 2022. Should we fear a return to fascism?

Loriga will first outline two historical key features within the Italian political context: on one hand, the constitutional consensus and the antifascist paradigm established at the end of the Second World War; on the other, the perdurance of fascism. She will then analyze how certain fascist terminologies and visions have been re-mobilized in the public debate. More specifically, she will expose three strategies used to disguise fascism in Italy (by claiming the fascist legacy but denying that it is fascism): first, the representation of fascism as an operetta dictatorship; second, anti-antifascism; and third, the game of hide-and-seek with fascism.

Sabina Loriga is professor of history at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris. She is editor of the journal Passés Futurs and chair of the festival of social sciences Allez Savoir, “Voyage en utopies.” Her research focuses on the relationships between history and biography, the construction of historical time, and public uses of the past. Her publications include: Une histoire inquiète. Les historiens et le tournant linguistique (avec J. Revel), Éditions Seuil-Gallimard, 2022; Le petit x. De la biographie à l’histoire (Seuil, 2010); Soldats. Un laboratoire disciplinaire: l’armée piémontaise au XVIIIe siècle (Belles Lettres, 2007); L’expérience historiographique (Editions de l’EHESS, 2016, in collaboration with A. Lilti et al.); and La juste mémoire. Lectures autour de Paul Ricœur (Labor et Fides, 2006, in collaboration with O. Abel et al.).

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