The Politics of Memory in the Italian Populist Radical Right

View more insights in Social Sciences - Political Science - European and International Studies

View more figures from King's College London

Next in European and International Studies

Allied Air Attacks and Civilian Harm in Italy, 1940–1945 Bombing among Friends

Matthew Anthony Evangelista | Cornell University

Contested Liberalization: Historical Legacies and Contemporary Conflict in France

Marianna Griffini discusses the role of colonial memory in the contemporary Italian populist radical right, which includes the Lega and Fratelli d’Italia (FdI).

Read the Book

Image courtesy of interviewee. June 19, 2023

Log-in or Sign-up to Faculti
Currently viewing this subject insight as a guest. You have insight(s) remaining for this month. Login to view 8000+ figures on the platform.

Generating Workspace...

Export as PDF

The speaker discusses their book, which evolved from a PhD project into a more comprehensive exploration of the relationship between populist radical right narratives in Italy, colonial memory, and fascist history, particularly in the context of immigration and nativist discourse. The motivation behind the work springs from a lack of interest in public debate and academic literature regarding these connections, prompting the speaker to synthesize disparate scholarly works on political parties, anti-immigrant rhetoric, and memory studies.

The theoretical framework presented posits that contemporary nativist discourse aligns with historical colonial narratives, suggesting that populist radical right parties exploit selective memory that idealizes aspects of colonialism while suppressing its negative consequences. The speaker emphasizes that political memory is inherently subjective and constructed to serve political goals.

While exploring Italy's colonial past, they highlight the intertwining of colonial and fascist memories, noting that fascism marked an intensification of Italian colonialism characterized by racist ideologies. The discussion transitions to the present, analyzing how Italy's current political landscape, led by parties with historical ties to fascism, employs nativist rhetoric in a contemporary context where immigration is framed as a threat.

Ultimately, the speaker argues that this historical continuity informs current political dynamics, particularly as Italy's right-wing government, under Georgia Maloney, adopts stringent immigration policies while navigating the complexities of public perception and historical revisionism. This video duality reflects a challenging moment for political discourse in Italy, where expressing alternative viewpoints may be met with resistance amid rising populism.

Language:

Export as PDF

Export as PDF
Here are five key points from the video:

1. **Origin and Motivation of the Book**: The book began as a PhD project and was later expanded, particularly during the pandemic, to address a gap in both public debate and academic literature regarding the intersection of immigrant discourse in Italy's populist radical right and colonial/fascist memory.

2. **Integration of Diverse Literatures**: The author aims to coalesce separate bodies of literature, specifically those dealing with political parties, nativism, and the politics of memory, to create a theoretical framework that analyzes how these topics intersect in the convideo of contemporary Italian politics.

3. **Subjectivity of Memory**: The video discusses how memory, especially regarding colonialism, is inherently subjective. It highlights that political entities selectively construct memories by choosing which aspects of the past to emphasize or forget, influencing contemporary political discourse and identity.

4. **Connection Between Colonialism and Nativism**: The author draws parallels between colonial discourse and the contemporary nativist rhetoric employed by populist radical right parties in Italy, suggesting that historical representations of the colonized have been transposed onto how current immigrants are perceived and articulated in political discussions.

5. **Current Political Convideo in Italy**: The book is situated within a specific political climate where populist radical right parties, such as the Brothers of Italy and League, are in power. It explores how these parties have adopted stringent immigration policies and nativist rhetoric while negotiating their ideological heritage, including connections to fascism and colonialism, to appeal to voters.

Export as PDF
Here are some key quotes from the video:

1. **Purpose of the Book**:
- "This book started out as my PhD project, and then it was significantly revised and expanded later on, especially during the pandemic."

2. **Motivation**:
- "What motivated it was the fact that there is a gap in the literature, and also scars in interest in public debate about possible ties between the ways in which immigrants are articulated in the populist radical right in Italy and colonial memory and fascist memory."

3. **Theoretical Framework**:
- "My mission was to bring into dialogue these different bodies of literature in such a way that we could construct a fruitful theoretical framework."
- "This theoretical framework departs from the assumption that populist radical right parties articulate a clearly nativist discourse against immigrants."

4. **Politics of Memory**:
- "Memory is, um, very instrumental to achieving political aims. So that's why I call this the politics of memory."

5. **Colonial Memory**:
- "The aspects of the past or the colonial past that these countries, and especially Italy recollect, retrieve and retain is very selective."
- "In the case of colonial memory, these countries... construct a narrative about the past that extols what are perceived to be positive elements of colonialism."

6. **Fascism and Colonialism**:
- "Colonial memory is entangled inextricably with fascist memory because fascism represented the peak of Italian colonialism."

7. **Nativism**:
- "Nativism is the mix between ethnocultural nationalism and racism."
- "Italy has always portrayed itself as being immune to racism."

8. **Current Political Climate**:
- "The current populist radical right is composed of two main parties."
- "It is always harder to express political opinions that may complicate... what the populist radical right does."

9. **Convideoual Shift**:
- "The Mediterranean is no more seen as a treasure space of expansion, but it is seen as a dangerous space that washes immigrants up on Italian shores."

10. **Conclusion on Timing**:
- "It is both the best time and the worst time to publish this book... the worst time because there's a populist radical right movement in government... the best time to publish the book."

These quotes capture the core themes of the video, focusing on the relationship between migration, memory, colonialism, and contemporary political discourse in Italy.

X-TIMESTAMP-MAP:LOCAL=00:00:00.000,MPEGTS=900000

00:06.880 --> 00:07.770
This book started

00:07.950 --> 00:09.010
Out as my PhD

00:09.440 --> 00:10.273
Project,

00:10.390 --> 00:14.450
And then it was significantly revised and expanded later on,

00:14.540 --> 00:18.330
especially during the pandemic. Uh, what motivated

00:18.350 --> 00:20.490
It was the fact that there is a

00:20.550 --> 00:22.250
Gap in the literature, and also

00:22.580 --> 00:23.030
Scars

00:23.030 --> 00:24.170
In interest in public

00:24.230 --> 00:27.170
Debate about possible ties

00:27.440 --> 00:32.330
Between the ways in which immigrants are articulated in the populist radical

00:32.460 --> 00:37.370
right in Italy and colonial memory and fascist memory.

00:37.790 --> 00:38.010
So

00:38.010 --> 00:40.290
It was both a lack of interest

00:40.740 --> 00:44.370
Among the public in political discourse and also

00:44.730 --> 00:44.990
A

00:44.990 --> 00:46.770
Gap in the academic literature

00:46.880 --> 00:49.810
That drove this project. I

00:49.910 --> 00:51.890
Was drawing on separate

00:52.430 --> 00:56.330
Bodies of literature because usually this topic

00:56.710 --> 01:00.210
Hasn't been treated co in a joint way.

01:00.510 --> 01:01.050
So I was

01:01.050 --> 01:03.610
Drawing on the literature on political parties,

01:04.630 --> 01:08.890
the literature on nativism, so anti-immigrant discourse,

01:09.070 --> 01:11.250
and the literature on memory. So

01:11.250 --> 01:12.083
The politics

01:12.110 --> 01:12.943
Of memory,

01:13.380 --> 01:15.370
These are usually topics that

01:15.370 --> 01:17.930
Are treated in an insular way. So my,

01:18.070 --> 01:22.410
my mission was to bring into dialogue these different bodies

01:22.590 --> 01:23.090
Of

01:23.090 --> 01:24.290
Literature in such a

01:24.350 --> 01:28.490
Way that we could construct, that I could construct a fruitful theoretical

01:28.680 --> 01:29.513
Framework.

01:29.790 --> 01:30.170
So this

01:30.170 --> 01:31.290
Theoretical framework

01:31.760 --> 01:32.280
Departs

01:32.280 --> 01:33.970
From the assumption that

01:33.970 --> 01:37.770
Populist radical right parties articulate a, a

01:37.770 --> 01:41.130
Clearly nativist discourse against immigrants.

01:42.000 --> 01:46.410
This discourse against immigrants bear some resemblances

01:46.790 --> 01:47.010
to

01:47.010 --> 01:49.410
The discourse that Italy

01:49.410 --> 01:54.210
As a country and also other western colonial former colonial powers,

01:54.210 --> 01:56.450
Articulated vis-a-vis the

01:56.920 --> 01:58.210
Colonized other,

01:58.280 --> 01:58.850
What I

01:58.850 --> 01:59.930
Call colonized other.

02:00.270 --> 02:00.950
So

02:00.950 --> 02:03.050
The conceptual, the theoretical framework

02:03.710 --> 02:04.610
Is predicated

02:05.120 --> 02:07.570
Upon this transposition of

02:07.710 --> 02:08.490
The

02:08.490 --> 02:13.050
Previously colonized other onto you, the contemporary immigrant.

02:13.100 --> 02:16.330
Other memory, by definition, is

02:16.590 --> 02:19.610
Always subjective. So we do choose

02:19.860 --> 02:21.290
Which elements of

02:21.390 --> 02:22.223
Our past

02:22.390 --> 02:27.010
To remember and which ones instead, we wanna forget memory,

02:27.510 --> 02:29.810
is, very instrumental,

02:30.630 --> 02:31.400
Uh, to

02:31.400 --> 02:33.810
Achieving political aims. So

02:33.810 --> 02:36.890
That's why I call this the politics

02:36.910 --> 02:37.743
Of memory.

02:38.510 --> 02:40.410
So, of course, political

02:40.410 --> 02:41.850
Parties in this case

02:42.110 --> 02:42.943
Or states

02:43.230 --> 02:44.290
Do construct

02:44.660 --> 02:45.070
Their

02:45.070 --> 02:46.370
Own memories

02:47.150 --> 02:47.620
By

02:47.620 --> 02:52.450
Distilling some elements of the past that they want to retain and do do

02:52.450 --> 02:54.530
mean to forgetting the ones that they

02:54.650 --> 02:55.240
Prefer,

02:55.240 --> 02:59.620
They more, they are more uncomfortable with, and they prefer to forget.

03:00.740 --> 03:02.580
I, I'm not a political psychologist,

03:02.840 --> 03:07.580
so I cannot lay claims to the fact that these forgetting or these

03:08.700 --> 03:12.780
remembering are, conscious, unintentional,

03:13.080 --> 03:17.940
or they are unconscious and unintentional. However,

03:17.940 --> 03:22.900
regarding colonial memory that is the aspects of the past

03:22.920 --> 03:25.740
or the colonial past that these countries,

03:25.760 --> 03:28.060
and especially Italy recollect,

03:28.820 --> 03:32.940
retrieve and retain is, very selective.

03:33.720 --> 03:37.580
So this is not a surprise in the sense that, as I was already anticipating,

03:37.720 --> 03:40.540
memory is, subjective by definition.

03:41.000 --> 03:42.780
But in the case of colonial memory,

03:43.270 --> 03:47.940
these countries and Italy especially construct a narrative

03:48.110 --> 03:51.860
about the past that extols that selects,

03:52.050 --> 03:56.940
retains extols what are perceived to be positive elements of

03:57.340 --> 04:01.980
colonialism, and instead relegates to the margins of memory,

04:02.240 --> 04:03.420
if not relegates,

04:03.420 --> 04:08.380
to forgetting those who are seen as the most uncomfortable aspects of

04:08.740 --> 04:13.460
colonialism. So this is, how memory is actually articulated,

04:13.640 --> 04:17.420
how colonial memory is actually articulated and how it plays out.

04:17.640 --> 04:21.180
We have to remember that in the case of Italy,

04:21.780 --> 04:25.980
colonial memory is entangled inextricably with fascist memory

04:26.490 --> 04:31.100
because fascism represented the peak of Italian colonialism.

04:31.760 --> 04:36.020
Uh, Italy extended its own colonial possessions,

04:36.080 --> 04:39.940
across the Mediterranean in Libya, starting from Libya.

04:39.940 --> 04:42.700
That was before fascism. So Libya,

04:43.060 --> 04:47.540
Eritrea and Somalia were acquired before fascism, but during fascism,

04:47.920 --> 04:52.700
it was when Ethiopia was conquered after a brutal war.

04:53.800 --> 04:58.500
So this expand, this represented expansion of Italian colonialism,

04:58.800 --> 05:03.700
and it's during the fascist era of Italian colonialism that Italian

05:03.980 --> 05:07.940
colonialism assumed very racist connotations.

05:08.680 --> 05:12.980
And it is when the fascist man was

05:13.490 --> 05:14.323
constructed,

05:14.400 --> 05:19.220
was portrayed vis-a-vis in a superior way vis-a-vis the

05:19.460 --> 05:22.420
supposedly inferior colonized others.

05:22.960 --> 05:27.700
So this is how colonial memory was articulated with

05:27.750 --> 05:32.380
power from the fact that nowadays the populist radical

05:32.550 --> 05:36.620
right articulates a very nativist discourse on immigration.

05:36.620 --> 05:37.700
What is nativism?

05:38.260 --> 05:42.780
Nativism is the mix between ethnocultural nationalism

05:43.800 --> 05:46.620
and racism. In Italy,

05:46.690 --> 05:51.260
there's no translation for the word nativism. And in Italy,

05:51.360 --> 05:55.340
racism has been a taboo word for decades.

05:57.410 --> 06:00.470
Uh, Italy has, in,

06:00.770 --> 06:05.750
has lingered in the, no, how can I say,

06:06.200 --> 06:10.390
Italy has always portrayed itself as been immune to racism.

06:11.090 --> 06:15.590
So it has lingered in this sense of redemption,

06:16.010 --> 06:19.630
of self redemption from racism. However,

06:20.710 --> 06:25.310
literature since the nineties have examined how have tried to

06:25.340 --> 06:29.190
deconstruct this, this narrative.

06:29.530 --> 06:32.190
So Italy has been an inherently

06:33.750 --> 06:38.710
nationalist ethnocultural, state and also inherently racist.

06:39.610 --> 06:44.350
So if we move from the fascist colonial era

06:44.490 --> 06:47.670
to nowadays, there seems to be quite a leap.

06:47.970 --> 06:52.230
But this leap is justified by the fact that the current

06:52.470 --> 06:56.230
populist radical right is composed of two main parties.

06:56.970 --> 07:00.630
One is the leg north that that's now called Laga,

07:01.130 --> 07:03.190
and the name Lo north.

07:03.490 --> 07:08.190
So north was dropped when the enacted

07:08.570 --> 07:13.510
its shift from a regionalist party confined to the north of Italy

07:14.010 --> 07:15.630
to a nationalist party.

07:15.940 --> 07:20.830
This happened around 2013 with the new leg legal leadership by mate Salvini

07:20.920 --> 07:25.710
still current leader. The, so this has no ties with,

07:25.810 --> 07:28.910
the fascist spirit, but Brothers of Italy,

07:28.960 --> 07:32.390
which is the party that now boasts,

07:32.390 --> 07:35.550
having a prime minister in power, Georgia Maloney,

07:35.970 --> 07:39.110
has a genealogical connection with fascism.

07:39.770 --> 07:43.150
I'm not saying I'm not arguing that brothers of Italy,

07:43.600 --> 07:45.630
Talia is a neo fascist party,

07:46.250 --> 07:50.670
but I emphasizing the fact that it is the hair

07:51.250 --> 07:52.083
to alliance,

07:53.000 --> 07:57.670
which was itself the successor to the Moo.

07:57.670 --> 08:02.470
That was the first neo fascist party constituted immediately in the

08:02.500 --> 08:03.670
post world period.

08:04.570 --> 08:08.670
And the Moo was clearly neo fascist.

08:09.610 --> 08:14.310
And, Allian enacted a shift away from neo fascism,

08:14.540 --> 08:15.990
even if the,

08:15.990 --> 08:19.710
there's a debate in the literature over whether this was just a cosmetic shift

08:19.930 --> 08:23.710
or it was more substantial, is not fascist,

08:23.730 --> 08:26.630
but it is undeniable that within fertility Italian,

08:27.090 --> 08:31.190
we have some members and some ideological remnants

08:31.820 --> 08:35.270
that date back to the movie Italian.

08:36.290 --> 08:39.070
So Mar Nostrom literally means our sea.

08:39.250 --> 08:43.870
It was the way in which the Mediterranean has been called throughout

08:43.980 --> 08:48.550
Italian history, even before Mussolini,

08:48.660 --> 08:52.390
Mussolini fascist, famous fascist dictator,

08:52.450 --> 08:57.220
in Italy wanted to extend Italian colonial power abroad

08:57.480 --> 08:59.900
across what was called mar nos room,

09:00.000 --> 09:03.020
as if it was Italy's own property,

09:03.450 --> 09:07.060
Italy's own space. However,

09:07.680 --> 09:11.180
now if we make the temporal leap again,

09:11.520 --> 09:15.860
the Mediterranean is no more seen as a treasure space

09:16.480 --> 09:17.580
of expansion,

09:18.200 --> 09:22.220
but it is seen as a dangerous space that washes

09:22.550 --> 09:27.140
immigrants up on Italian shores. So this is the contrast.

09:27.160 --> 09:31.620
So while we still have the iteration of nativist tropes

09:32.290 --> 09:36.860
between colonialism and the contemporary Italian

09:36.860 --> 09:40.620
populist radical, right, the figure, the Mediterranean,

09:40.960 --> 09:45.820
the role of the Mediterranean has shifted from a treasure

09:45.910 --> 09:50.260
space to a very dangerous space that is to be detached

09:50.970 --> 09:54.780
from, Italy. So I think that this is, has,

09:54.880 --> 09:59.340
has been said also by, by the discussant, my book launch,

09:59.610 --> 10:02.700
both the best time and the worst time to publish this book.

10:03.280 --> 10:05.620
So the worst time it is because Italy,

10:05.620 --> 10:08.620
there's a populist radical right movement and, sorry,

10:08.790 --> 10:12.980
party and government in government and, it,

10:13.040 --> 10:15.340
it is always,

10:15.340 --> 10:20.220
harder to express political opinions that may

10:20.270 --> 10:20.940
complicate,

10:20.940 --> 10:25.900
that may problematize the main interrogate what the populist radical, right.

10:26.370 --> 10:31.260
Does that have been some attacks to, media freedom, for instance?

10:32.160 --> 10:36.460
Uh, this was what my discussion was hinting at. I'm not, you know,

10:36.460 --> 10:38.220
saying that I agree with this or not,

10:38.440 --> 10:42.060
but let's move on to the best time to publish the book. And that's, you know,

10:42.240 --> 10:46.740
the, the main takeaways and why it's important. Now, again,

10:46.800 --> 10:50.740
we have a public radical rights, party in power.

10:51.640 --> 10:52.580
And,

10:52.650 --> 10:57.300
this Alia with Georgia Maloney is indeed

10:57.820 --> 11:00.460
enacting stringent immigration policies.

11:01.120 --> 11:05.060
It has made nativism its trademark.

11:05.330 --> 11:08.500
Even if things get in power in government,

11:09.010 --> 11:13.620
they have slightly down their most radical and

11:13.700 --> 11:17.940
undemocratic ideological elements in order to appeal to

11:18.270 --> 11:22.460
electorate and to sound more civic and credible and legitimate.

Faculti AI can make mistakes

Research

Policy

Analysis

Data

Originals

Explainers

Podcasts

Faculti

New on Faculti

Idea Explorer

Definition

News Context

Exploratory Questions

Faculti AI Answers

Research Summaries

The Politics of Memory in the Italian Populist Radical Right

Next in European and International Studies