The XVI Congress of the Association of Contemporary History takes place from September 7 – 9 2023 at the University of La Rioja. The Congress title this year is “Looks at the past, looks at the present. New horizons of contemporary historiography”. The world in which we live, especially in times of increasing uncertainty, looks to history for clues to understand itself, its past, its present and even its possible future. Dr Steven Forti of Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, and leader of Work Package 3 of ARENAS which Analyses the Circulation of Extremist Narratives, will deliver a paper titled “Metapolitics and right-wing gramscism. The penetration and influence of neo-rightist ideas in Italy and Spain (1970-1990s)” at the Congress.
The key theme addressed in Dr. Forti’s paper is the diffusion in Italy and Spain of the neo-rightist ideas raised at the end of the sixties in France. Forti offers a novel overview of the neo-fascist organisations, groups and intellectuals who were most active in this work of appropriating the ideas of Alain de Benoist and the Nouvelle Droite and their adaptation to the Italian and Spanish political context. Likewise, the author highlights the porosity of the borders of these political sectors that developed the so-called “right-wing gramscism” understood not only as a metapolitical strategy but also as an operation of ideological parasitism.
Finally, in a work attentive to the comparative and transnational perspective, Forti highlights analogies and differences between Italy, Spain and France in the roots of these ideas that, after the sowing of the 1970s and 1980s, allowed far-right parties and groups to reap the first fruits, that is, to have a not inconsiderable degree of influence on politics and public opinion, spreading extremist narratives and discourses that are beginning to have a greater degree of acceptance in the society.
The paper will be published in time with the entire proceedings of the Congress, but for now, you can click here to learn more about Dr. Forti and his published work.
