CasaPound Italia: a philosophical political analysis.

This contribution analyses the main symbolic and cultural manifestations of CasaPound Italia, a far-right movement born in Italy in 2003. The movement presents itself as a flexible development of the more traditional far-right movements that refer explicitly to the fascist tradition. Moreover, it also has a profound and innovative vocation for pop culture. CasaPound Italia’s political mobilization operates through a galaxy of groups (youth, university, musical), associations (cultural, sports, recreational), newspapers and radio, websites, blogs, social pages and social spaces, in which the culture and aggressiveness of the extreme right find their territorial roots, both at local, national and international level (e.g. the alliance of intents and initiatives that connects CasaPound Italia to other movements and political formations of the extreme right at a global level, such as Golden Dawn in Greece). Therefore, this contribution intends to reflect on some aspects of CasaPound’s identity construction, that have their roots in a hybrid theoretical tradition, ranging from Gentile's fascist statolatry to cult of futurism, from Julius Evola's conspiracy theory to Alain de Benoist's Nouvelle Droite. We will also analyze the political language, the programs, the leaders' speeches, the web and social pages, the musical and artistic events, as well as the leading newspapers and radio stations that revolve around the horizon of thought and the political activity of the movement, to grasp its main communication strategies. The media ecosystem within which CasaPound Italia operates has favoured, especially in recent years, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the spread of a conspiracy, denialist and supremacist orientation centred on a violently anti-systemic and deeply racist vision, which brings together the traditional demands of the social right (housing, social mortgages, birth rates, unemployment) with the most recent initiatives aimed at countering government policies contemptuously defined as "third world" or "Eurocentric", accused of being contrary to the national interest and Italian identity. The strength and innovation of CasaPound’s political offer is this ability to hybridize different traditions and languages, building networks starting from initiatives of political militancy and cultural mobilization. Despite of poor electoral results in recent years, the movement has successfully continued to move within an increasingly fragile political system, characterized by the slow slide towards forms of anti-democratic populism. Furthermore, in a political climate characterized by the affirmation of a centre-right government (Meloni Government, since 2022), political movements such as CasaPound declare their difference concerning government and party logics, radicalizing the forms of mobilization by more frequent acts of physical violence or use of fascist rituals, symbols and slogans. This contribution intends to investigate these aspects to understand how the movement has built its identity, starting from an ambiguous and flexible reference to the historical memory of fascism, placed as an element of continuity and legitimacy, but also of declared breaking of expressive canons.