CasaPound Italia

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Facade of CasaPound (2010), with the lettering in marble letters , which had to be removed in 2019

CasaPound Italia ( CPI for short ) is a neo-fascist movement and party in Rome that sees itself as nationalist and social . It has had its headquarters in an occupied building in the XV. Rione . The name refers to the American writer Ezra Pound , a follower of Mussolini . According to its own statements, the movement currently has around 4,000 members who call themselves “fascists of the third millennium”. CasaPound maintains close contacts with the right-wing extremist scene in Europe and is a role model for many activists.

history

Election poster of the South Tyrolean branch of CasaPound with racist content (2018)

The origins of CasaPound go back to 2003, when, according to the movement, an empty building in the Roman migrant quarter Esquilino near Roma Termini train station was occupied because of the high rents , it was said . People from the Movimento Politico Occidentale , Meridiano Zero and Fiamma Tricolore groups, all of whom were representatives of the extreme right in Italy , were involved in the action . The six-story apartment building in Via Napoleone III was named after the anti-Semitic , anti-American and racist poet Ezra Pound , a supporter of Mussolini . Today the building is marked by swastikas and fascist slogans. Several families also live there. At that time, the current president of CasaPound , Gianluca Iannone , was also involved in the campaign . He was previously active as a neo-fascist activist and skinhead . It was his intention to counter the Centri Sociali occupied by the radical left . He also borrowed from the Disobbedienti movement, which is critical of globalization .

After CasaPound was excluded from the Fiamma Tricolore party due to internal disputes, it built its own structures. For this purpose, additional premises in the capital were occupied from 2004/05, including localities and bookshops (including fascist, historical revisionist , Nazi-glorifying writings), such as the Olimpico-Farnesina train station, which was decommissioned in 2008 . As a result, CasaPound extended its area of ​​activity to other cities in Italy as far as Sicily . It currently has 13 regional organizations at around 50 locations across the country. In 2006 a school and student organization called Blocco Studentesco was founded, which also operates nationwide. CasaPound formed its own print and radio formats and is now well represented in social networks . In 2012 around 6,000 supporters of CasaPounds demonstrated against banks and the government in Rome .

In 2012 it received party status. In the parliamentary elections in Italy 2013 CasaPound Italia took part with Simone di Stefano as the top candidate. Although CasaPound can certainly have mandate holders in local politics - in 2010 it entered Silvio Berlusconi's open lists of Il Popolo della Libertà (PDL) - it has so far not been able to gain a foothold nationwide. It achieved the best results in Lazio (0.79 percent) and Bolzano (1.7 percent). In terms of local politics, it came to just 0.61 percent in the same year and thus fell short of the expectations we had set ourselves. In the right-wing extremist milieu, she was relegated to her place by the Fratelli d'Italia - Alleanza Nazionale and La Destra . In the parliamentary elections in Italy in 2018 CasaPound received 0.95% of the vote, in the state election in South Tyrol in 2018, 0.9%.

CasaPound now has the status of non-profit making and can be financed through donations . According to its own information, over 4,000 people are members of CasaPound today (2014) . According to the historian Volker Weiß , the center is "tolerated by the city administration and protected by the Roman police in case of doubt."

In June 2019, Gianluca Iannone announced that CasaPound would no longer participate in elections as a party. As a movement, however, one remains active.

Kulturkampf

Demonstration of the CasaPound movement in Naples (2012)

In contrast to the established right, representatives of the CasaPound describe themselves as " fascists of the third millennium". Old set pieces are modeled and redesigned. One tries to praise fascism as a lifestyle and deliberately occupies more left-wing issues. A kind of “ culture war from the right” is going on. The movement is based on the French Nouvelle Droite . The values ​​of modernity that go back to the French Revolution are being combated .

As a sign she chose a stylized black and white turtle ("Tartaruga") with an octagonal shell. A book by the neo-fascist theorist Gabriele Adinolfi , a former right- wing terrorist , should serve as a template. For reasons of publicity, CasaPound gives different interpretations of the octagon . Koch rates this as "sailing under a false flag". Followers of the movement usually wear uniform clothing for actions.

CasaPound is reminiscent of the Roman Empire and the Mussolini district Esposizione Universale di Roma . The once avant-garde futurism of the first half of the 20th century, whose founder Filippo Tommaso Marinetti was a companion of Mussolini's, is used. The “turbodynamism” of the movement - a kind of synthesis of politics and aesthetic violence - leaves out the “reflexive moments” and is limited “to a habitual copy,” says Weiß.

On the other hand, one tries to capture the symbolic value of the 1968 movement . CasaPound instrumentalizes the names and images of personalities from the cultural and political sectors such as Jack Kerouac , Giuseppe Impastato , Rino Gaetano , Carmelo Bene , Bobby Sands , Che Guevara , Edén Pastora Gómez and Subcomandante Marcos . The movement also borrows from pop culture (comics, novels, films, anime, etc.). There it is often about " fighters who stand outside the law and the existing morality". Certain films are very popular, such as You Are Living by John Carpenter , 300 by Zack Snyder and Fight Club by David Fincher . Last but not least, you use alternative youth culture ( hip-hop , street art, etc.) for your own purposes. There are even competitions of their own. Relevant brands such as Thor Steinar and Erik and Sons are advertised on the weblog Zentropa, which is part of the CasaPound network .

Italian right-wing rock is of greater importance in the music sector . As the official band of Casa Pound acts Zetazeroalfa . whose singer is President Iannone.

Blocco Studentesco

Blocco Studentesco logo

In order to introduce interested parties to the fascist ideology more easily, CasaPound founded a school and student organization in 2006, the Blocco Studentesco . He also takes part in relevant elections, so in 2009 he successfully entered the student parliaments with 100 representatives. Its logo shows a white lightning bolt with a circle on a black background; it is based on the flag of the British Union of Fascists by Oswald Mosley from the 1930s.

Demonstrations and parades are a common form of action among the movement's adolescents. Events such as flash mobs , hard bass and happenings are organized, which are then made available via YouTube and other social media.

The youth organization is sometimes extremely aggressive, in 2008 there was a street battle between armed fascists and left-wing students on the Piazza Navona in Rome . However, public resistance is marginal compared to its European neighbors.

activities

CasaPound claims to be a nationalist and social institution. According to the Mutuo Sociale concept, living space in particular should remain affordable. It is based on the Verona Manifesto , the founding document of the fascist Italian Social Republic of the 1940s. The movement is committed to sports, cultural and social activities. These offers are based on Mussolini's Opera Nazionale Dopolavoro (cf. Strength through Joy of the National Socialists) with the ultimate goal of gaining “sovereignty over space and interpretation”. Ice hockey, mountain hikes and martial arts are all offered. They also have good contacts in the football scene and influence the ultra-movement there . In 2013 CasaPound organized a “national martial arts tournament” in Rome together with the Russian organization White Rex of the right-wing extremist Denis Nikitin , among those present were neo-Nazis such as Andy Knape , Federal Chairman of the Young National Democrats , and right-wing rock bands.

After the earthquake in L'Aquila in 2009 , the activists volunteered as helpers in the open spaces. To this day, they work in civil defense , in the medical field ( blood donations , helpline etc.) and in environmental protection . At the same time, there is open agitation against the Red Cross and trade unions , which are accused of inaction. CasaPound founded its own union, the Blocco dei Lavoratori Unitario, to improve coordination, but this has so far remained relatively unsuccessful.

Repeated solidarity was shown with Erich Priebke , a former SS leader and Nazi war criminal who died in house arrest in 2013 . CasaPound MPs regularly take part in commemorative events in honor of Mussolini in Predappio .

Fields of action

The most important fields of action of the modernized fascism of CasaPound include a .:

effect

According to Spiegel Online , CasaPound is said to have been the “ideological home” of the assassin Gianluca Casseri , who shot and killed two Senegalese street vendors in Florence on December 13, 2011 , injuring three others and then committed suicide while fleeing the police. CasaPound distanced itself from the assassin.

Representatives of the European old and new right showed interest in CasaPound and the Identitarian Movement , said Koch. The idea of ​​an education and cultural center within the right-wing movement was taken up by the NPD in Germany . The concept was also well received by the Free Comradeships and the Autonomous Nationalists , who had already developed similar ideas with the “ National Liberated Zones ”. CasaPound also exerts influence on representatives of the new right in Germany, such as the magazines Blaue Narzisse around Felix Menzel and the Secession around Götz Kubitschek .

CasaPound is mentioned in the right-wing extremism section of the 2013 report on the protection of the constitution by the Federal Ministry of the Interior . Various state offices for the protection of the constitution and the Documentation Archive of the Austrian Resistance (DÖW) also classify CasaPound as right-wing extremist or neo-fascist due to its contacts in other European countries.

According to the Milanese contemporary historian Roberto Chiarini (2013), CasaPound is one of “the best-known and most active groups” of Italian fascism in the extra-parliamentary space of the last two decades. The British fascism researcher Aristotle Kallis (2014) names CasaPound as an example of splinter groups of the radical right, which are characterized by loose organizational structures, a radical anti-system profile and, not infrequently, conspiratorial and violent actions.

Centropa

The blog Zentropa is the network of Casa Pound expected. It's more youthful and subcultural . In 2006 the activists published a manifesto there . Koch describes Gabriele Adinolfi as the “ spiritus rector ” of the site. Contents on the “ Conservative Revolution ”, various European fascist leaders and new right theorists are disseminated.

literature

Monographs

  • Daniele Di Nunzio, Emanuele Toscano: Dentro e fuori Casapound. Capire il fascismo del Terzo Millennio . Armando Editore, Rome 2011, ISBN 978-88-6081-926-0 .
  • Heiko Koch: Casa Pound Italia. Mussolini's heirs . Unrast, Münster 2013, ISBN 978-3-89771-536-3 .

Contributions to edited volumes

  • Anna Castriota, Matthew Feldman : An overview of language and ideology in Italy's CasaPound Movement . In: Matthew Feldman, Paul Jackson (Eds.): Doublespeak. The Rhetoric of the Far Right since 1945 . ibidem, Stuttgart 2014, ISBN 978-3-8382-6554-4 , p. 223 ff.
  • Matthew Feldman, Andrea Rinaldi: 'Penny-wise…'. Ezra Pound's Posthumous Legacy to Fascism . In: Paul Jackson, Anton Shekhovtsov (Eds.): The Post-War Anglo-American Far Right. A Special Relationship of Hate . Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke 2014, ISBN 978-1-137-39619-8 , p. 39 ff.
  • Daniele Di Nunzio, Emanuele Toscano: Taking Everything Back. CasaPound A Far Right Movement in Italy . In: Antimo L. Farro, Henri Lustiger-Thaler (Ed.): Reimagining Social Movements. From Collectives to Individuals . Ashgate Publishing Farnham 2014, ISBN 978-1-4094-0104-9 , pp. 251 ff.
  • Emmanuel Godin : The European extreme right. In search of respectability? . In: Nathan Hall, Abbee Corb, Paul Giannasi, John GD Grieve (Eds.): The Routledge International Handbook on Hate Crime . Routledge, New York 2015, ISBN 978-0-415-81890-2 , pp. 138 ff. ( CasaPound , pp. 146–147)

Peer-reviewed articles

  • Emanuele Toscano, Daniele Di Nunzio: Casapound movement. individual affirmation in struggles against Democracy . In: Rassegna Italiana di Sociologia 53 (2012) 4, pp. 631-660.
  • Pietro Castelli Gattinara, Caterina Froio, Matteo Albanese: The appeal of neo-fascism in times of crisis. The experience of CasaPound Italia . In: Fascism 2 (2013), pp. 234-258. doi : 10.1163 / 22116257-00202007
  • Pietro Castelli Gattinara, Caterina Froio: Discourse and Practice of Violence in the Italian Extreme Right. Frames, Symbols, and Identity-Building in CasaPound Italia . In: International Journal of Conflict and Violence 8 (2014) 1, pp. 154–170.
  • Phillip Becher: Mobilization practices of the extreme right using the example of Casa Pound Italia. Casa Pound - a "common house" for Europe's neo-fascists? . In: PROKLA . Journal for Critical Social Science 48 (2018) 3, pp. 459–473.

More specialist articles

Web links

Commons : CasaPound  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Reports

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ La Repubblica , online article from August 7, 2019
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Jan-Christoph Kitzler: Italy: Casa Pound - Fascism for the 3rd millennium? . Right-wing extremism dossier , Federal Agency for Civic Education , March 24, 2014.
  3. ^ Giulia Basile: Mussolini's grandson - "Casa Pounds" right-wing youth centers in Italy . Kulturzeit ( 3sat ), March 7, 2011.
  4. ↑ Koch (2013), p. 15.
  5. ↑ Koch (2013), p. 17.
  6. ^ Martin Langebach , Andreas Speit : Europe's radical right. Movements and parties on the streets and in parliaments . Orell Füssli, Zurich 2013, ISBN 978-3-280-05483-3 , p. 151.
  7. ↑ Koch (2013), p. 18.
  8. ↑ a b Koch (2013), p. 19.
  9. ↑ Koch (2013), p. 19.
  10. ↑ Koch (2013), p. 55.
  11. ↑ Koch (2013), p. 20.
  12. ^ Martin Langebach , Andreas Speit : Europe's radical right. Movements and parties on the streets and in parliaments . Orell Füssli, Zurich 2013, ISBN 978-3-280-05483-3 , p. 165.
  13. ↑ Koch (2013), p. 96 ff.
  14. ↑ a b c Volker Weiss : Neofascism in Italy. Suitable for pop culture . In: Frankfurter Rundschau , November 3, 2010.
  15. ↑ Casa Pound Iannone: "Finita esperienza di partito, torniamo movimento". In: repubblica.it . June 27, 2019, accessed February 9, 2020 (Italian).
  16. ↑ Koch (2013), p. 23.
  17. ↑ Koch (2013), p. 24.
  18. ^ Martin Langebach , Andreas Speit : Europe's radical right. Movements and parties on the streets and in parliaments . Orell Füssli, Zurich 2013, ISBN 978-3-280-05483-3 , p. 150.
  19. ↑ Koch (2013), p. 29.
  20. ↑ Koch (2013), p. 32.
  21. ↑ Koch (2013), p. 32 ff.
  22. ↑ Koch (2013), p. 38 ff.
  23. ↑ Koch (2013), p. 42 ff.
  24. ↑ Koch (2013), p. 46 f.
  25. ↑ Koch (2013), p. 47.
  26. ↑ Koch (2013), p. 52.
  27. ↑ Koch (2013), p. 53.
  28. ↑ Koch (2013), p. 59.
  29. ↑ Koch (2013), p. 63.
  30. ↑ Koch (2013), p. 61.
  31. ↑ Koch (2013), p. 62.
  32. ↑ Koch (2013), p. 64.
  33. ↑ a b Volker Weiß : Tip for the Casa Pound . publikative.org , May 3, 2013.
  34. ^ Martin Langebach , Andreas Speit : Europe's radical right. Movements and parties on the streets and in parliaments . Orell Füssli, Zurich 2013, ISBN 978-3-280-05483-3 , p. 152.
  35. ↑ Koch (2013), p. 66.
  36. ^ Alberto Testa, Gary Armstrong: Football, Fascism and Fandom. The UltraS of Italian Football . A&C Black, London 2010, ISBN 978-1-4081-2371-3 , p. 91.
  37. ↑ Johannes Radke: Martial arts, runes, racial hatred . Right-wing extremism dossier , Federal Agency for Civic Education , January 14, 2014.
  38. ↑ Koch (2013), p. 67 ff.
  39. ↑ Koch (2013), p. 70 f.
  40. ↑ Koch (2013), pp. 73 ff.
  41. ^ Emmanuel Godin: The European extreme right. In search of respectability? . In: Nathan Hall, Abbee Corb, Paul Giannasi, John GD Grieve (Eds.): The Routledge International Handbook on Hate Crime . Routledge, New York 2015, ISBN 978-0-415-81890-2 , pp. 138 ff. ( CasaPound , pp. 146–147)
  42. ^ Anna Castriota, Matthew Feldman: An overview of language and ideology in Italy's CasaPound Movement . In: Matthew Feldman (Ed.): Doublespeak. The Rhetoric of the Far Right since 1945 . ibidem, Stuttgart 2014, ISBN 978-3-8382-6554-4 , p. 223 ff.
  43. ^ Annette Langer : Signor Casseri's crude ideas . SPON , December 15, 2011.
  44. ↑ Koch (2013), p. 112.
  45. ↑ Patrick Gensing : The “Casa Pound” - a role model for German neo-Nazis ( Memento from March 24, 2015 in the Internet Archive ). publikative.org , December 14, 2011.
  46. ↑ Koch (2013), pp. 118 ff.
  47. ↑ Federal Ministry of the Interior (ed.): Verfassungsschutzbericht 2013 . Berlin 2014, p. 66.
  48. ^ Roberto Chiarini : Italy . In: Ralf Melzer, Sebastian Serafin (ed.): Right-wing extremism in Europe. Country analyzes, counter-strategies and labor market-oriented exit work . Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung , Forum Berlin, Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-86498-521-8 , p. 110.
  49. ^ Aristotle Kallis : The Radical Right in Contemporary Europe . SETA Foundation for Political Economic and Social Research , 13/14, Ankara 2014, p. 12.
  50. ↑ Koch (2013), p. 126.
  51. ↑ Koch (2013), p. 129.
  52. ↑ Koch (2013), p. 133.
  53. ↑ Koch (2013), p. 139.