NP Berlusconi's coalition in Italy

[Doug Millison]

Little did I anticipate that on the day I arrived, Silvio Berlusconi's
coalition of right-wing parties, calling itself La Casa delle Libert (the
House of Freedoms), would triumph in Italy's national elections. [...]
Berlusconi is one of Europe's richest men, with a history of corruption,
conflicts of interest and alliance with some of the most retrograde elements
in Italian life. For the first time since World War II the country's
governing coalition will include parties that consider themselves the heirs
of Fascism. [...]
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20010618&s=foner



http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20010507&s=allen
Fascism--ostracized after World War II as the ideology that dared not speak
its name--is presentable in Italy again, under the impact of a revisionist
impulse that is rewriting the country's recent history. No longer are the
Fascists the principal villains. Those who fought with Mussolini are seen as
long-neglected patriots, while the architects of the resistance, above all
the Communists, are colored as failed social revolutionaries. [...]
Indications are that in national elections on May 13, Italians will opt for
the center-right, led by Silvio Berlusconi, whose "House of Liberty"
coalition includes the National Alliance of Gianfranco Fini. The alliance is
heir to the Fascist legacy (and vote) despite Fini's largely successful
effort to transform it into a "modern, open, right-wing party." While Fini
is no threat to march on Rome, he remains the politician who in 1994 called
Mussolini "the greatest statesman of the twentieth century." His party's
delegation in Parliament includes Mussolini's granddaughter Alessandra.
Berlusconi's government would also include the xenophobic Northern League,
whose pugnacious leader, Umberto Bossi, not long ago was urging northern
Italy to secede. Many Italian observers consider the league, and its
often-unruly backers, the most dangerous element in Berlusconi's electoral
cocktail. The same coalition came to power briefly in 1994, then fell when
Bossi deserted after six months. By most accounts, the coalition is likely
to win bigger and stay in control longer this time. 


...perhaps out European correspondents can shed more light on the
neo-fascist presence in European governments?