Pacifying the Nation? Youth, MSI Martyrs, and Meloni’s Memory Politics

This article examines the commemorative culture constructed by a network of Italian far-right groups under Giorgia Meloni’s premiership to honor the neofascist victims of Italy’s Years of Lead. It considers the rhetoric of “pacification” put forward by Meloni in her calls to incorporate the memory of far-right victims into Italy’s national memory culture, and analyzes this narrative of victimhood and sacrifice as part of a broader effort to legitimize the far right within the history of the democratic republic. The article also analyses several recent developments in far-right memory culture, whereby the act of remembering is presented as part of a new crusade and commemoration as a form of political militancy for the next generation of far-right groups. Furthermore, this research historicizes the connection between youth and the institutional far-right in the sphere of remembrance, drawing parallels with the commemorative culture created by the Movimento Sociale Italiano (MSI) in the 1970s. Overall, the article argues that Fratelli d’Italia’s engagement with neofascist commemorative culture today, which crystallizes around the far-right victims of the 1970s but incorporates rituals and rhetoric dating back to the Fascist ventennio, perpetuates revisionism, glorifies neofascism and minimizes far-right violence, making memory a battleground for political legitimacy.