Le fascisme italien

In 1971 Italy woke up to a question it thought it had settled. At the polls the Italian Social Movement, the MSI, a neo-fascist party founded by men nostalgic for Mussolini, made a breakthrough that stunned Europe. A quarter of a century after the war, could fascism come back through the ballot box? "24 heures sur la Deux", the news programme of the ORTF's second channel, sent me to find out.

I went to Sicily, where the party had just won its best results. I wanted to understand who was voting for it, and why. Then I met its leader, Giorgio Almirante, a skilful orator and the central figure of the Italian far right. In front of my camera he claimed a personal loyalty to Mussolini while refusing to be called his heir.

Behind the party, the groups

The second part went further. Behind the parliamentary facade I showed more radical groups, training teenagers under the cover of sports clubs, and the danger of the party being outflanked by something more extreme than itself. Italy was entering what would come to be called the Years of Lead. I was to meet them again a few years later, as TF1's correspondent in Rome.

The country was no stranger to me. My parents, who came from Lake Maggiore, had left Italy in the 1930s to escape the fascist regime. Forty years on, their son was going back to question those who still claimed its legacy.

The two parts, broadcast on 11 and 12 October 1971, are preserved by the INA and can be watched on its madelen platform. They show how "24 heures sur la Deux" liked to work: take a major subject and unfold it over several evenings, giving the reporting time to explain.