and victims. The memory of battles and political commitments to past causes
like emancipation has little recognition. The 20th century is not made up
exclusively of wars, genocide and totalitarianism. It was also the century of
revolutions, decolonisation, the conquest of democracy and great collective
struggles. This memory has been delegitimised nowadays, having become
hidden and covert. I call it a “Marrano memory,” insofar as it is a hidden,
underground memory like that of Marranos in the Spanish kingdom at the
time of Inquisition. It seems to me that in order to break down the cage of
“presentism” — a world locked up in the present with neither utopia nor the
capacity to look ahead to the future — it is necessary to accommodate these
memories. The remembrance of collective movements takes on an anti-
conformist, perhaps subversive dimension to a neoliberal era dominated by
individualism and competition.
You speak of “post-fascism” in order to describe the new political
and social movements of the far right and to distinguish them from
the fascism of the 1930s or the neo-fascism of the end of the 20th
century. Could you explain to us what post-fascism entails?
I speak of “post-fascism” because the new far right has taken its distance
from fascism, at least in the countries where it has become a major player in
political life.
On an ideological level, post-fascism
is very different to traditional
fascism in terms of language,
organisation and mobilisation. It
is no longer fascist but has still
not become something completely
different and new.
It is a form of transition, which justifies the notion of post-fascism. Its
dominant characteristics are nationalism and xenophobia, especially in the
form of Islamophobia. Nowadays, it no longer finds its fundamental purpose
in anti-communism or anti-Semitism. The focus has changed. Nevertheless,
a major economic crisis with the dismantling of the euro and European
institutions etc. could bring about a change of direction and a return to
traditional fascism. Of course, this can happen also outside of Europe. After
the election of Donald Trump in the US, Jair Bolsonaro, a politician who
clearly fits all requirements of a fascist leader, has been elected in Brazil. This
depicts an international tendency.
22
Observing Memories
ISSUE 2