Defending the ‘Supra-Nation’: Former Italian Fascists’ Support for European Integration in the 1950s

“Defending the ‘supra-nation’” examines the strong support for European integration found among a group of committed nationalists of the 1950s: former members of Benito Mussolini’s Fascist regime. Despite the 1944-1946 attempt to purge the Italian state of Fascist influence, by the 1950s most ex-Fascists lived in Italy as free men. During the early years of the Cold War and decolonization, former Fascist Education Minister Giuseppe Bottai and other ex-Fascists called on Italian nationalists to embrace European cooperation as the only means of defending the ‘supra-nation’ of Europe from the intrusion of both dominant powers (like the United States and Soviet Union) as well as emerging powers in Asia and Africa. While more mainstream calls for European integration in the 1950s touted its potential for undermining nationalist sentiment and promoting international cooperation, these Italian ex-Fascists supported the European Economic Community for explicitly racist reasons. Their concept of Europe was not a cosmopolitan one, but instead reinforced ethnocentric views of non-Europeans, advocating the maintenance of unequal relationships with other parts of the world.