Neo-fascism

Neo-fascism is a post–World War II ideology that includes significant elements of fascism. Neo-fascism usually includes ultranationalism, racial supremacy, populism, authoritarianism, nativism, xenophobia and opposition to immigration, as well as opposition to liberal democracy, parliamentarianism, Marxism, communism and socialism. Allegations that a group is neo-fascist may be hotly contested, especially if the term is used as a political epithet. Some post–World War II regimes have been described as neo-fascist due to their authoritarian nature, and sometimes due to their fascination with and sympathy towards fascist ideology and rituals. Post-fascism is a label that has been applied to several European political parties that espouse a modified form of fascism and which partake in constitutional politics. A number of historians and political scientists have pointed out that the situations in a number of European countries in the 1980s and 1990s – in particular France, Germany and Italy – were in some significant ways analogous to the conditions in Europe in the period between World War I and World War II that gave rise to Fascism in its many national guises. Constant economic crises including high unemployment, a resurgence of nationalism, an increase in ethnic conflicts, and the geo-political weakness of national regimes were all present, and while not an exact one-to-one correspondence, circumstances were similar enough to promote the beginning of a new Fascist movement, 'neo-Fascism.' Because intense nationalism is almost always a part of neo-Fascism, the parties which make up this movement are not pan-European, but are specific to each country they arise in; other than this, though, the neo-Fascist parties and other groups have many ideological traits in common. While certainly Fascistic in nature, it is claimed by some that there are differences between neo-Fascism and what can be called 'historical Fascism', or the kind of neo-Fascism which came about in the immediate aftermath of World War II. Some historians claim that contemporary neo-Fascist parties are not anti-democratic, because they operate within their country's political system. Whether that is a significant difference between neo-Fascism and historical Fascism is doubted by other scholars, who point out that Hitler worked within the existing political system of the Weimar Republic to obtain power, although it took an anti-democratic but constitutional process – presidential appointment rather than election through the Reichstag. Others point to the current neo-Fascists not being totalitarian in nature, but the organization of their parties along the lines of the fuhrerprinzip would seem to indicate otherwise. Historian Stanley G. Payne claims that the differences in current circumstance to that of the interwar years, and the strengthening of democracy in European countries since the end of the war prevents a general return of historical Fascism, and causes true neo-Fascist groups to be small and remain on the fringe. For Payne, groups like the National Front in France are not neo-Facists in nature, but are merely 'right radical parties' that will, in the course of time, moderate their positions in order to achieve electoral victory. The problem of immigrants – both legal and illegal (or 'irregular') – whether called 'foreigners', 'foreign workers', 'economic refugees', 'ethnic minorities', 'asylum seekers', or 'aliens', is a core neo-Fascist issue, intimately tied to their nativism, ultranationalism, and xenophobia, but the specifics differ somewhat from country to country due to prevailing circumstances. In general, the anti-immigrant impetus is strong when the economy is weak or unemployment is high, and people fear that outsiders are taking their jobs. Because of this, neo-Fascist parties have more electoral traction during hard economic times. Again, this mirrors the situation in the interwar years, when, for instance, Germany suffered from incredible hyperinflation and many people had their life savings swept away. In contemporary Europe, mainstream political parties see the electoral advantage the neo-Fascist and far-right parties get from their strong emphasis on the supposed problem of the outsider, and are then tempted to co-opt the issue by moving somewhat to the right on the immigrant issue, hoping to slough off some voters from the hard right. In the absence in post-war Europe of a strong socialist movement, this has the tendency to move the political center to the right overall. While both historical Fascism and contemporary neo-Fascism are xenophobic, nativist and anti-immigrant, neo-Fascist leaders are careful not to present these views in so strong a manner as to draw obvious parallels to historical events. Thus both Jean-Marie Le Pen of France's National Front and Jörg Haider's Freedom Party of Austria, in the words of historian Tony Judt, 'revealed prejudices only indirectly'. Thus Jews would not be castigated as a group, but a person would be specifically named as danger who just happened to be a Jew. The public presentation of their leaders is one principle difference between the neo-Fascists and historical Fascists: their programs have been 'finely honed and 'modernized'' to appeal to the electorate, a ''far-right ideology with a democratic veneer''. Modern neo-Fascists don't appear in 'jackboots and brownshirts', but in suits and ties. The choice is deliberate, as the leaders of the various groups work to differentiate themselves from the brutish leaders of historical Fascism, and also to hide whatever bloodlines and connections tie the current leaders to the historical Fascist movements. When these become public, as they did in the case of Haider, it can lead to their decline and fall. In 1951, the New European Order (NEO) neo-fascist Europe-wide alliance was set up to promote Pan-European nationalism. It was a more radical splinter group of the European Social Movement. The NEO had its origins in the 1951 Malmö conference when a group of rebels led by René Binet and Maurice Bardèche refused to join the European Social Movement as they felt that it did not go far enough in terms of racialism and anti-communism. As a result, Binet joined with Gaston-Armand Amaudruz in a second meeting that same year in Zurich to set up a second group pledged to wage war on communists and non-white people. Several Cold War regimes and international neo-fascist movements collaborated in operations such as assassinations and false flag bombings. Stefano Delle Chiaie, who was involved in Italy's Years of Lead, took part in Operation Condor; organizing the 1976 assassination attempt on Chilean Christian Democrat Bernardo Leighton. Vincenzo Vinciguerra escaped to Franquist Spain with the help of the SISMI, following the 1972 Peteano attack, for which he was sentenced to life. Along with Delle Chiaie, Vinciguerra testified in Rome in December 1995 before judge María Servini de Cubría, stating that Enrique Arancibia Clavel (a former Chilean secret police agent prosecuted for crimes against humanity in 2004) and US expatriate DINA agent Michael Townley were directly involved in General Carlos Prats' assassination. Michael Townley was sentenced in Italy to 15 years of prison for having served as intermediary between the DINA and the Italian neo-fascists.