CasaPound Italia and the grupuscular neofascist subversive cult subculture: nostalgic reactivations, aesthetic-ideological stylizations, and adaptive mutations

Abstract

The object of this research is the neo-fascist movement CasaPound Italia (CPI). The
“fascists of the third millennium” draw directly on the identity of Mussolini’s historical fascism, particularly its “movement phase,” while also being genealogically embedded in the lineage of Italian fascism, specifically in the organizational tradition represented by the neo-fascist Movimento Sociale Italiano and Fiamma Tricolore. However, CPI is not merely a nostalgic neo-fascist group, in the sense proposed by fascism scholar Roger Griffin (1991). Drawing on the typologies developed by the British theorist, we argue that CPI displays features of a grupuscular organizational formation and that its ideological configuration approximates a neo-fascist subversive cult subculture,
combining the historical fascist tradition with diverse cultural references, such as Anglo-American pop-rock culture, the Hollywood film industry, and a particular revolutionary style associated with the political culture of the left. The result is an idiosyncratic form of neo-fascism marked by elements of nostalgia for Italian fascism. Within this conceptual framework, the research examines how CPI’s political culture is constituted in the Italian context and what forms of organization and ideological configuration it assumes