By Jacob Braun
Entrance of Garibaldi to Naples (1860), Wenzel Franz Jager, via WikiMedia Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported
On the surface, Italy and Germany seem like polar opposites of each other. Italy is Catholic, while Germany is Protestant. Italians love to relax, while Germans are typically stereotyped as workaholics. Italian is a Romance language, and German is of Germanic origin. However, both states can trace a lot of common factors together in their origin stories. By looking to the past at unification and the birth of fascism, we can glean some insight into Italy’s populist present. (If anyone is interested in brushing up on their knowledge of Italian and German unification, watch this video by Crash Course!)
UNIFICATION- TROUBLES OF IDENTITY
Both Germany and Italy united primarily using negative integration—that is to say they attacked a defined outsider in order to group together their own national community. Before unification both nations were made up of multiple different states (maps of Germany, Italy) who identified as independent rather than as part of a greater nation. As a result, regionalism still persists in both Germany and Italy and is a tool populists love to exploit.
FASCIST PASTS- AND MEASURES AGAINST RESURGENCE
The aftermath of the First World War would set the foundations for a resurgence in nationalist fervor among the vanquished nations, thus birthing fascism (this grossly oversimplifies the origin of fascism, read this to learn in-depth). The Second World War would largely eradicate fascist presence in Europe, legislating explicitly against fascist party operations. In Italy however, fascist-adjacent parties were allowed to exist despite laws existing against them.
POPULIST PRESENT
As a result of the inaction against neo-fascist political parties in Italy, those parties would be able to regroup and re-assess the political landscape and essentially rebrand themselves to be palatable for the public. Populist parties would emerge, bringing a new energy to the table in contrast to their aging neo-fascist counterparts. Starting on the regional stage then evolving to the national, Populist politicians used new tactics with old messages to gain power.
The Plague of Populism 
The fascist commonality between Germany and Italy has always been an interesting case, but what I always found particularly noteworthy was that the relationship between Mussolini and Hitler was always super business focused, and Mussolini was more of less Hitler’s puppet in a lot of ways especially as Italy was on the verge of collapse. I think that this just goes to show that these kinds of authoritarian leaders in the end have their own interests in mind, and their alliances are purely due to the benefits they get from each other that help fuel there fascist goals.
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