How Italy Lost its Antifascist Compass
Introduction
Biography of Stefanie Prezioso
Stefanie Prezioso earned her Doctorate in History from the University of Lausanne in 2002. She taught at Trinity College and was a visiting researcher at NYU. She is currently Professor of Modern History at the Institute of Political Studies at the same university. She is the author or co-editor, among other publications, of Contre la guerre 14–18. Résistances mondiales et révolution sociale (2017); Echoes of October. International Commemorations of the Bolshevik Revolution 1918–1990 (London: Lawrence & Wishart, 2017, with Jean-François Fayet and Valérie Gorin); Découvrir l’antifascisme (2025); and Quand vient la nuit. Volontaires internationaux contre le fascisme (1936-1939) (with Jean Batou and Ami-Jacques Rapin, 2026).
Prezioso’s research interests include World War I, revolutionary processes in the first half of the twentieth century, social movement in the aftermath of World War I and II, political violence and antifascist and fascist formations. Her research on fascism addresses its political origins, conceptual definitions, and transnational dynamics. She also examines the public uses of the memory of fascism in contemporary media—including media technologies, social media, online gaming, and search-engine algorithms—as well as in political discourse.
Select bibliography
Books
Stefanie Prezioso (ed. with Jean Batou, Ami-Jacques Rapin, forthcoming 2026), Quand vient la nuit. Volontaires internationaux contre le fascisme 1936-1939, Paris, Syllepse.
Stefanie Prezioso (2025), Découvrir l’antifascisme, Paris, éditions sociales. ISBN 2533671195.
Stefanie Prezioso (2017), Contre la guerre 14-18. Résistances mondiales et révolution sociale, Paris, La Dispute, 2017, 420 p. (ISBN : 978-2-84303-281-3)
Stéfanie Prezioso (ed with Jean-François Fayet, Valérie Gorin) (2017), Echoes of October. International Commemorations of the Bolshevik Revolution 1918-1990, London, Lawrence & Wishart, 256 p. (ISBN 978-1-910448-96-0)
Books chapters
Stéfanie Prezioso (2021), « Fascisme(s) «, in Razmig Keucheyan, Jean-Numa Ducange (dir.), Histoire globale des socialismes, Paris, PUF, 2021, p. 242-252 ( ISBN: 978-2-13-082210-3)
Stéfanie Prezioso (2020), « Engagements. La guerre comme expérience idéologique et politique», in André Loez (dir.), Mondes en guerre. Tome III. Guerres mondiales et impériales 1870-1945, Paris, Passés/Composés, 2020, p. 423-475 (ISBN : 978-2-3793-3248-7)
Stéfanie Prezioso (2016), « Did Revisionism Win? Italy between loss of historical consciousness and nostalgia for the past », in Hugo García, Mercedes Yusta, Xavier Tabet, and Cristina Climaco (eds), Rethinking Antifascism. History, Memory and Politics, 1922 to the Present, New York, Berghahn Book, 2016, p. 241-257 (ISBN 978-1-78533-138-1)
Journal Articles
Stefanie Prezioso (2025), « Fascisme, hier, aujourd’hui, demain » in Fascisme 2.0, AOC, juin 2025, p. 17-24.
Stefanie Prezioso (2025), « The Trouble with Fascism analogies », Jacobin, 21.11
Stefanie Prezioso (2024), « The Antifascist Left. On Joseph Fronczak, Everything Is Possible: Antifascism and the Left in the Age of Fascism (Yale University Press, 2023) », Catalyst: À journal of Theory & Strategy, Vol. 8, N°1.
Stefanie Prezioso (2008), « Antifascism and Antitotalitarianism: The Italian Debate », Journal of Contemporary History 43(4) (October), 555–72
Biography of Stefanie Prezioso
Stefanie Prezioso earned her Doctorate in History from the University of Lausanne in 2002. She taught at Trinity College and was a visiting researcher at NYU. She is currently Professor of Modern History at the Institute of Political Studies at the same university. She is the author or co-editor, among other publications, of Contre la guerre 14–18. Résistances mondiales et révolution sociale (2017); Echoes of October. International Commemorations of the Bolshevik Revolution 1918–1990 (London: Lawrence & Wishart, 2017, with Jean-François Fayet and Valérie Gorin); Découvrir l’antifascisme (2025); and Quand vient la nuit. Volontaires internationaux contre le fascisme (1936-1939) (with Jean Batou and Ami-Jacques Rapin, 2026).
Prezioso’s research interests include World War I, revolutionary processes in the first half of the twentieth century, social movement in the aftermath of World War I and II, political violence and antifascist and fascist formations. Her research on fascism addresses its political origins, conceptual definitions, and transnational dynamics. She also examines the public uses of the memory of fascism in contemporary media—including media technologies, social media, online gaming, and search-engine algorithms—as well as in political discourse.
Select bibliography
Books
Stefanie Prezioso (ed. with Jean Batou, Ami-Jacques Rapin, forthcoming 2026), Quand vient la nuit. Volontaires internationaux contre le fascisme 1936-1939, Paris, Syllepse.
Stefanie Prezioso (2025), Découvrir l’antifascisme, Paris, éditions sociales. ISBN 2533671195.
Stefanie Prezioso (2017), Contre la guerre 14-18. Résistances mondiales et révolution sociale, Paris, La Dispute, 2017, 420 p. (ISBN : 978-2-84303-281-3)
Stéfanie Prezioso (ed with Jean-François Fayet, Valérie Gorin) (2017), Echoes of October. International Commemorations of the Bolshevik Revolution 1918-1990, London, Lawrence & Wishart, 256 p. (ISBN 978-1-910448-96-0)
Books chapters
Stéfanie Prezioso (2021), « Fascisme(s) «, in Razmig Keucheyan, Jean-Numa Ducange (dir.), Histoire globale des socialismes, Paris, PUF, 2021, p. 242-252 ( ISBN: 978-2-13-082210-3)
Stéfanie Prezioso (2020), « Engagements. La guerre comme expérience idéologique et politique», in André Loez (dir.), Mondes en guerre. Tome III. Guerres mondiales et impériales 1870-1945, Paris, Passés/Composés, 2020, p. 423-475 (ISBN : 978-2-3793-3248-7)
Stéfanie Prezioso (2016), « Did Revisionism Win? Italy between loss of historical consciousness and nostalgia for the past », in Hugo García, Mercedes Yusta, Xavier Tabet, and Cristina Climaco (eds), Rethinking Antifascism. History, Memory and Politics, 1922 to the Present, New York, Berghahn Book, 2016, p. 241-257 (ISBN 978-1-78533-138-1)
Journal Articles
Stefanie Prezioso (2025), « Fascisme, hier, aujourd’hui, demain » in Fascisme 2.0, AOC, juin 2025, p. 17-24.
Stefanie Prezioso (2025), « The Trouble with Fascism analogies », Jacobin, 21.11
Stefanie Prezioso (2024), « The Antifascist Left. On Joseph Fronczak, Everything Is Possible: Antifascism and the Left in the Age of Fascism (Yale University Press, 2023) », Catalyst: À journal of Theory & Strategy, Vol. 8, N°1.
Stefanie Prezioso (2008), « Antifascism and Antitotalitarianism: The Italian Debate », Journal of Contemporary History 43(4) (October), 555–72
Prolog
Italy plays a decisive role in the mainstreaming of the far-right presently at work throughout Europe. The birthplace of fascism is not only the largest EU member where the right and the far-right govern together. It was also one of the first to be ruled by such a coalition. Giorgia Meloni, the post-fascist prime minister in charge since 2022, was already Silvio Berlusconi’s Minister of Youth back in 2008. Moreover, contrary to Viktor Orbán, she is recognized as a trustworthy partner by most European leaders.
According to Stefanie Prezioso, there is a strong correlation between the legitimacy currently granted to the heirs of fascism and the longstanding discredit affecting Antifascism. From the founding of Italy’s first republic, the historian stresses in the interview she gave us, Alcide de Gasperi’s ruling Christian-Democratic party invoked the need for national reconciliation to stifle the hopes of radical change harbored by the resistance to Mussolini and nazi occupation. However, once deprived of the vigilance provided by antifascism, democracy soon loses the ability to recognize its enemies. Hence the prompt rehabilitation of the Duce’s faithful after the end of the war.
Eager to stay in the US government’s good graces, the Christian Democrats could count on the assistance of the communist opposition. Because Stalin wanted to preserve the status quo, Palmiro Togliati, the Italian communist leader, ordered the rank and file to keep the base in check. Largely shared by the two main parties, the modernization project associated with the first republic was eventually challenged by the “Long 68” movement, which lasted until the mid 1970s and revived the antifascist spirit. The decade, however, ended with the so-called “Years of Lead” and the stillborn “historic compromise” between Communists and Christian-democrats, which, in turn, paved the way for the neoliberal counterrevolution and the demise of the First Republic.
Though they destroyed the Christian-democratic party, the corruption scandals exposed by Operation Clean Hands hardly benefited the left. Unsettled by the fall of the Soviet empire, despite its efforts to distance itself from Moscow, the Italian communist party dissolved in 1991 and immediately rebranded itself as a center-left party informed by neoliberal precepts. From the void created by the implosion of the old regime, Stefanie Prezioso explains, a mutant and radicalized right would emerge, one where glitz and the cult of entrepreneurial freedom meshed with reactionary impulses. Silvio Berlusconi, the towering figure of the new era, won the legislative elections for the first time in 1994. Thanks to his media empire, he managed to turn his own brazenness into a promise of emancipation and to paint his detractors as the harbingers of a red totalitarianism despised by ordinary Italians. After being declared obsolete under the first republic, antifascism was now treated as an inconvenient and suspicious tradition.
The coalition formed around Silvio Berlusconi’s party, Forza Italia, already included the political forces in power today, namely the libertarians of the Northern League and the self-proclaimed post-fascists of National Alliance. The former accused the State of wasting the tax revenues of honest citizens on parasites – whether hailing from the South of Italy or from Africa – while the latter contended that, save for a few mistakes between 1938 and 1945, the right had always been the loyal servant of the Italian people.
Berlusconi’s right-wing alliance did not only profit from the lack of vision and courage of its center-left rivals. What proved equally beneficial to its standing was the rise of Beppe Grillo and his Five Stars movement. As Stefanie Prezioso demonstrates, the often-clashing grievances on which the comedian built his success created a politically confusing and somewhat conspiratorial climate of defiance. Grillo alternatively railed against the privatization of water supply and allegedly lax immigration laws, thereby preventing the translation of social movements into a revamped progressive agenda. Thus, what eventually brought Berlusconi down was not the reawakening of the left but the exasperation of his European partners with his lack of fiscal discipline.
Berlusconi’s exit did not undo the rightist alliance that he had brokered. Instead, it led to a new balance of power among its components. Indeed, in today’s ruling coalition, Forza Italia is largely a rump party, while Fratelli d’Italia, the custodian of the fascist legacy, is dominant. Polite and collegial, Giorgia Meloni is now treated as a loyal member of the European community, At the same time, her government is no longer content with simply erasing the memory of antifascism: like the Trump administration, its purpose is to criminalize it. Though obviously alarmed by this new development, Stefanie Prezioso finds solace in the fact that antifascism continues to worry the likes of Meloni. For it conveys that the antifascist tradition remains a crucial resource for those who are determined to challenge the world’s rightward drift.
Our interview took place in Paris, on October 13, 2025.
Prolog
Italy plays a decisive role in the mainstreaming of the far-right presently at work throughout Europe. The birthplace of fascism is not only the largest EU member where the right and the far-right govern together. It was also one of the first to be ruled by such a coalition. Giorgia Meloni, the post-fascist prime minister in charge since 2022, was already Silvio Berlusconi’s Minister of Youth back in 2008. Moreover, contrary to Viktor Orbán, she is recognized as a trustworthy partner by most European leaders.
According to Stefanie Prezioso, there is a strong correlation between the legitimacy currently granted to the heirs of fascism and the longstanding discredit affecting Antifascism. From the founding of Italy’s first republic, the historian stresses in the interview she gave us, Alcide de Gasperi’s ruling Christian-Democratic party invoked the need for national reconciliation to stifle the hopes of radical change harbored by the resistance to Mussolini and nazi occupation. However, once deprived of the vigilance provided by antifascism, democracy soon loses the ability to recognize its enemies. Hence the prompt rehabilitation of the Duce’s faithful after the end of the war.
Eager to stay in the US government’s good graces, the Christian Democrats could count on the assistance of the communist opposition. Because Stalin wanted to preserve the status quo, Palmiro Togliati, the Italian communist leader, ordered the rank and file to keep the base in check. Largely shared by the two main parties, the modernization project associated with the first republic was eventually challenged by the “Long 68” movement, which lasted until the mid 1970s and revived the antifascist spirit. The decade, however, ended with the so-called “Years of Lead” and the stillborn “historic compromise” between Communists and Christian-democrats, which, in turn, paved the way for the neoliberal counterrevolution and the demise of the First Republic.
Though they destroyed the Christian-democratic party, the corruption scandals exposed by Operation Clean Hands hardly benefited the left. Unsettled by the fall of the Soviet empire, despite its efforts to distance itself from Moscow, the Italian communist party dissolved in 1991 and immediately rebranded itself as a center-left party informed by neoliberal precepts. From the void created by the implosion of the old regime, Stefanie Prezioso explains, a mutant and radicalized right would emerge, one where glitz and the cult of entrepreneurial freedom meshed with reactionary impulses. Silvio Berlusconi, the towering figure of the new era, won the legislative elections for the first time in 1994. Thanks to his media empire, he managed to turn his own brazenness into a promise of emancipation and to paint his detractors as the harbingers of a red totalitarianism despised by ordinary Italians. After being declared obsolete under the first republic, antifascism was now treated as an inconvenient and suspicious tradition.
The coalition formed around Silvio Berlusconi’s party, Forza Italia, already included the political forces in power today, namely the libertarians of the Northern League and the self-proclaimed post-fascists of National Alliance. The former accused the State of wasting the tax revenues of honest citizens on parasites – whether hailing from the South of Italy or from Africa – while the latter contended that, save for a few mistakes between 1938 and 1945, the right had always been the loyal servant of the Italian people.
Berlusconi’s right-wing alliance did not only profit from the lack of vision and courage of its center-left rivals. What proved equally beneficial to its standing was the rise of Beppe Grillo and his Five Stars movement. As Stefanie Prezioso demonstrates, the often-clashing grievances on which the comedian built his success created a politically confusing and somewhat conspiratorial climate of defiance. Grillo alternatively railed against the privatization of water supply and allegedly lax immigration laws, thereby preventing the translation of social movements into a revamped progressive agenda. Thus, what eventually brought Berlusconi down was not the reawakening of the left but the exasperation of his European partners with his lack of fiscal discipline.
Berlusconi’s exit did not undo the rightist alliance that he had brokered. Instead, it led to a new balance of power among its components. Indeed, in today’s ruling coalition, Forza Italia is largely a rump party, while Fratelli d’Italia, the custodian of the fascist legacy, is dominant. Polite and collegial, Giorgia Meloni is now treated as a loyal member of the European community, At the same time, her government is no longer content with simply erasing the memory of antifascism: like the Trump administration, its purpose is to criminalize it. Though obviously alarmed by this new development, Stefanie Prezioso finds solace in the fact that antifascism continues to worry the likes of Meloni. For it conveys that the antifascist tradition remains a crucial resource for those who are determined to challenge the world’s rightward drift.
Our interview took place in Paris, on October 13, 2025.