Meloni Government Honors the “Philosopher of Fascism” Amid Silence from the “Underground”

This year, Georgia Meloni’s government did not mark the International Roma Day on April 8, but instead decided to mark another, “more important” event just two days later. On 10 April, a special commemorative stamp dedicated to the 80th anniversary of the death of one of Italy’s leading fascists, Giovanni Gentile, was presented at an official ceremony in Palazzo Piacentini in Rome. It was attended by the Minister of Enterprise and Made in Italy, Adolfo Urso (the main initiator), the Minister of Culture, Gennaro Sangiuliano, and other officials and guests (https://shorturl.at/ei3Pc).Gentile was assassinated by Italian partisans at the end of the WWII, on 15 April, 1944. In 2024, Italy’s government consists of people who see no problem in celebrating one of fascist dictator Mussolini’s closest associates. Who is Giovanni Gentile and what has he done to deserve such a tribute?

Giovanni Gentile (1875 – 1944) was described by his friend, Benito Mussolini, as “The Philosopher of Fascism” for his enormous contribution to the development of the fascist ideology in Italy. He wrote “The Manifesto of the fascist intellectuals” (1925) and co-authored together with Mussolini “The Doctrine of Fascism” (1927). But he is mainly remembered for his policies as Minister of Education in Mussolini’s first government.

The “Gentile reform” included reorganization of the Italian educational system, the closure of all minority schools in South Tyrol and the so called Julian March, the ban on German, Slovene and Croatian languages, and the replacement of minority teachers with ethnic Italian teachers. These measures were part of the “Italianization” policy aiming at forced integration and assimilation of the non-Italians, especially of Slavic origin; in 1926 they were even obliged to change their names to sound more Italian and were prohibited to give their new-born children Slavic names. In response to the forced Italianization the local Slovenes and Croats formed in 1927 one of the first anti-fascist, militant, partisan organizations in the world – TIGR (full name, Revolutionary Organization of the Julian March Trst, Istra, Gorica, and Reka T.I.G.R.).

Among the few Italian politicians who reacted to the commemorative stamp marking the 80th anniversary of Gentile’s death were representatives of Italy’s German minority, such as the governor of South Tyrol Arno Kompatscher (https://shorturl.at/za6HJ). According to Slovene online media “Domovina”, this provocative act of the Italian government was met with silence by the government of Slovenia which did not want to confront Meloni, despite the great sacrifices of the small Slovenian nation in the fight against Italian fascism (https://shorturl.at/lC4bQ). It is no secret that Ms Meloni is very well received in Brussels and leading politicians from the largest European party, EPP, are openly seeking her cooperation as chair of the European Conservatives and Reformists group in the EU Parliament.

How should these processes in Italian and European politics be interpreted by “marginalised groups, such as Roma”? Perhaps the purpose of marginalisation is precisely so that they cannot ask such questions. While Italian government prints postage stamps with philosophers from the era of Mussolini, the Roma NGOs are still struggling with the priorities of the long-ended “Decade of Roma Inclusion”. It sounds like a strange paradox, like in a movie of Kusturica, the Roma isolated in the “Underground” of their delusion, cannot understand the change on the surface of European politics. In fact, it is not just the Roma, many more people today are in the same situation but the position of Roma is very symbolic.  The commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the assassination of Gentile, who defended fascism, coincided with the 80th anniversary of the genocide against Roma who were victims of fascism – a profound contradiction. Not one but two value systems, two worldviews coming into collision; a choice between the past and the future of Europe.