Commentary
Those who attack antifascism are attacking democracy
With concrete neo-fascist forms of politics directly in power, on the verge of taking power, or able to strongly influence it, anti-fascism becomes a political necessity. This is the real reason why banning ‘Antifa’ is so important to right-wing forces.
We live in Italy, a country where the glorification of fascism is a crime. This, however, does not prevent various groups and political figures from displaying its symbols, slogans, and doctrines with complete impunity. Without going back to the infamous 1970s, we can point to a much more recent example: the fascist-style squad assault on the headquarters of the CGIL trade union in Rome. As for the claim that the radical right has never resorted to violence in post-war Italian history, this is such an outrageous falsehood that it is not even worth the effort of a rebuttal.
Now, starting in Trump’s America, in a trend also followed by European countries like Hungary and the Netherlands, there is a push to classify movements that identify as Antifa as terrorist organizations. This acronym does not correspond to any specific political group, but rather refers to a diverse archipelago of left-wing activists engaged in countering the political activities of neo-fascist and neo-Nazi groups. This opposition can be exercised in various ways; and whenever some of those ways involve provable criminal activity, this obviously can and should be prosecuted based on the specific offenses committed.
But what is at stake here is something else entirely. Declaring that anti-fascism – the very foundation of European democracies – is an ideology that spreads hatred and inspires intolerant and violent behavior has the sole purpose of rehabilitating fascism and fully legitimizing its contemporary forms.
A single example should suffice. According to this new logic, the gigantic movement that swept across Germany in response to the neo-fascist conference in Potsdam – where plans were drafted for the mass deportation of all people of foreign origin – should be considered a terrorist mobilization. Conversely, the doctrines of Martin Sellner, founder of the Identitarian movement and inventor of the term “remigration,” a white supremacist who was himself declared persona non grata in Germany, should be considered worthy of calm and respectful debate.
The real problem is that “remigration” is already being widely practiced in the United States, is being planned in Hungary, and is strongly desired, along with other authoritarian restoration projects, by the far right in the Netherlands, the U.K. and Austria.
The militant anti-fascism of the 1970s was, in many ways, a bloody waste of time – a distraction from what is truly essential and a political dead end. But today, with concrete neo-fascist forms of politics directly in power, on the verge of taking power, or at least able to strongly influence it, anti-fascism once again becomes a political necessity. It is not simply a matter of historical remembrance, and certainly not something that falls under the demeaning logic of gang warfare, but a project capable of countering the ongoing construction of an authoritarian state.
This is the real reason why banning a phantom organization called Antifa is so important to right-wing forces on both sides of the Atlantic. It is about eliminating anti-fascism itself, an ideology that history has not yet completely delegitimized and which still constitutes an antibody and an obstacle on the path towards authoritarian regimes.
Originally published at https://ilmanifesto.it/chi-attacca-lantifascismo-attacca-la-democrazia on 2025-09-20