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L'Europa riparte dai giovani

(Europe Is Renewed by the Youth)

Produced by the Fronte della Gioventù (Youth Front, FdG), this poster's message is that "L'Europa riparte dai giovani" (Europe Is Renewed by the Youth). Typifying the Italian far right's reverence for classical Rome, the poster's background imagery features a silhouette of a Roman centurion. As is the case with Mikis Mantakas' poster, this FdG poster frames the far-right agenda as not just a national but, also, a global struggle. Here, though, there are clear imperialist overtones with the visual evocation of the ancient Roman Empire.

Founded in 2015, but based on a dissolved neo-fascist youth organization formerly coordinated by the Movimento Sociale Italiano (Italian Social Movement, MSI), FdG's objective is to "bring youth back on top." The youth group's contemporary leadership has described the condition of the global economy as an "explosive mixture that will affect the most vulnerable social class: young people," due to "falling oil prices, latent recession, slowdown in the U.S. economic cycle, sluggish domestic demand in emerging countries, [and] plunging stock markets." In the face of the lethargy of "a political class devoid of values," FdG calls for its members to take action against "this social war that not only affects Italy but also the rest of Europe." Echoing the language of interwar Italian Fascism, which presented itself as neither left nor right but, instead, a "Third Way" approach to industrial modernity, the organization concludes its manifesto with the following call-to-arms:

Let us take up our flag again and continue in this direction, towards the third way, a direction born from the union of alternative forces to the system, with a strong pro-European stance, not the Europe of bureaucrats and technocrats, of course, but a Europe of the fatherlands, who will never stop fighting for the good of their people! (2016).

There appears to be a loose connection between Magnitudo Italia (Magnitude Italy, MI)a far-right political activism organization based in Rome – and the various FdG posters which appeared throughout Italy's capital city between October 2018 and May of the following year. In November 2018, MI held a demonstration against the mayor of Rome, Virginia Raggi, in Piazza del Popolo, which included a banner with an strikingly similar phrasing: "L'Italia riparte dai giovani" (Italy Is Renewed by Its Youth) (Fig. 4). Since FdG was dissolved in the mid-1990s along with its parent organization, the MSI, it remains a mystery as to which individual or organization – or, perhaps, which constellation of individuals and organizations – was responsible for the dissemination of these FdG-branded materials. The usage of these similar phrases, however, combined with the concentration of these posters and banners in Rome's northern neighborhoods, where MI is headquartered, strongly suggests a connection between the latter and the FdG posters.

At the time of this writing, FdG has not posted on any social media channels since 2018. The group's Instagram and Facebook pages, both of which are advertised on this poster, are no longer available.

Video

Fig. 3 A video of Dr. Brian J Griffith collecting one of the Youth Front's "Europe Is Renewed by the Youth" posters from a wall near Rome's Piazza Balduina. Source: Video by Brian J Griffith (May 12, 2019).

Images

L'Europa riparte dai giovani
L'Europa riparte dai giovani This poster was produced by the Youth Front and emphasizes the role of youth in "renewing" Europe. Founded in 2015, but based on a dissolved neo-fascist youth organization formerly coordinated by the Italian Social Movement, the Youth Front aims to reassert young Italians' voices of discontent amidst Italy's, and indeed the world's, various economic challenges, presenting a pro-European stance intertwined with nationalist and imperialist overtones reminiscent of ancient Rome. Source: Photograph by Brian J Griffith (December 28, 2020).
Fig. 1
Fig. 1 A collection of the Youth Front's "Europe Is Renewed by the Youth" posters on the façade of the Cornelio Tacito State Classical Lyceum in Rome. Notice the accompanying layers of other neo-fascist materials, including half-worn posters and graffiti, highlighting the ideological struggle between the far right and its opposition in Italy's public schools. Source: Photograph by Brian J Griffith (May 12, 2019).
Fig. 2
Fig. 2 One of the Youth Front's "Europe Is Renewed by the Youth" posters on an electrical utility box in Rome's Piazza Balduina. Source: Photograph by Brian J Griffith (July 2, 2019).
Fig. 4
Fig. 4 A group of Magnitude Italy members carrying a banner in Rome's Piazza del Risorgimento bearing a strikingly similar phrase to the one which appears on the Youth Front's "Europe Is Renewed by the Youth" poster. Whereas the Youth Front's poster refers to Europe's "renewal," Magnitude Italy's banner proclaims that "Italy Is Renewed by the Youth." Magnitude Italy's "Family – Sorry If It's Normal" poster, moreover, appeared in Rome within days of the Youth Front's poster, and was distributed in largely the same locations, strongly suggesting a connection between the two organizations. Source: Magnitudo Italia, "L'Italia Riparte dai Giovani," Facebook (November 15, 2018).

Location

Related Resources

Fronte della Gioventù, “L'Europa riparte dai giovani,” Where Monsters Are Born: Documenting a Fascist Revival in the Streets of Rome, 2018-2019, accessed October 22, 2024, https://wheremonstersareborn.com/items/show/32.