Mussolini, Fascism and the ‘idea of Europe’. At the origins of a debate

Only along the Thirties Fascism, pressed between the consciousness of the European crisis and the advance of National-Socialism, whose competition he feared, developed a project of New European Order. With such a proposal, the fascist regime intervened in a discussion on Europe that since the Twenties had been involving such eminent personalities as Briand or Coudenhove-Kalergi, and several intellectual movements, from Paneuropa to Mitteleuropa and Abendland. The beginning of the debate in Italy coincided with the celebration of the regime decennium in 1932, the myth of imperial Rome being then put forward as the guiding light of the international mission of Fascism. Most of all, it was the Volta Conference on Europe, in November 1932, organized by the Royal Academy of Italy under the sponsorship of Mussolini, that gave international resonance to the project of a fascist Europe. By examining the most relevant papers, the A. points out the peculiar features of the fascist designs, marking their distance not only from the liberal-democratic outlook but also - more significantly - from the Nazi idea of Europe proposed by Rosemberg, who of the New fascist order challenged the very core, i.e. the right and heritage of Rome.

Keywords: Volta Conference, myth of Rome, Alfred Rosenberg, New European Order, Fascist Europe project, the Thirties

• Cosmopolitanism, Nationalism and Hegemony: Antonio Gramsci’sPrison Notebooksand the European Crisis Fabio Frosini, in International Critical Thought /2017 pp.190
  DOI: 10.1080/21598282.2017.1316679

Monica Fioravanzo, Mussolini, il fascismo e l’‘idea dell’Europa’. Alle origini di un dibattito in "ITALIA CONTEMPORANEA" 262/2011, pp 7-27, DOI: 10.3280/IC2011-262001