A left that for many years identified itself almost entirely with the Communist Party. An anti-democratic left. To belong to the liberal-democratic family, a double requirement is in fact necessary that few had: be both anti-fascist and anti-communist.

Decade after decade, anti-fascism ran the risk of being overcome given the almost total absence of fascists in circulation. However, giving up anti-fascism was not possible and still is not possible: an enemy helps to give oneself an identity in times of crisis, to close ranks, to hide their flaws. The Italian left had these problems and still has them: after the fall of the Wall a little’ at a time it moved closer to capitalism and ended up embracing American-led globalization. This also implies changing the electoral base: the left today represents the "enlightened" and cosmopolitan bourgeoisie. In the meantime, the proletarians have veered decisively to the right or have merged into protest movements such as the 5 place.

The left continued and continues to raise the alarm about fascism without realizing that, seen from outside, the fascism alarm in the absence of fascism derails into pure comedy.
What to do? Slowly fascism was stripped of all the characteristics necessary to define and circumscribe the phenomenon. From a historical category it has become a moral category. To understand this process you can read Eternal Fascism (The ship of Theseus) by Umberto Eco, text of a conference delivered in 1995 at Columbia University in New York. The fascism alarm was double. In the United States, and Oklahoma City, a right-wing extremist had just blown up a building housing government and military agencies. In Italy, Silvio Berlusconi had won the government at the helm of a popular mass party, Forza Italia. The left, sure to win due to lack of competition, was defeated. Berlusconi became an example of modern fascism, a senseless accusation.
Let's go back to Eco's book. Naturally, fascism does not always present itself in a black shirt as in the Twenty Years. Luckily it has some eternal characteristics that allow it to be unmasked. A couple of them are enough to set off the alarm. Let's see them: the cult of tradition, the rejection of modernism, action for action, the fear of difference, the appeal to the frustrated middle classes, the obsession of the conspiracy, life as permanent war and as conquest of the world, nationalism, contempt for the weak, machismo, populism from Piazza Venezia to television or on the internet. They are non-specific categories, they are also good for the communism of Stalin or Castro. And then? Fascism is everything that disturbs the conscience of the "enlightened" and cosmopolitan bourgeois who populate the big cities. In general, evil is fascist while goodness is leftist.
Just take a look at recent pamphlets like Instructions for Becoming a Fascist (Einaudi) by Michela Murgia. No historical analysis and tons of moralizing. Antonio Scurati focused on history in his fictionalized biography of Mussolini, entitled M. The son of the century (Bompiani). An interesting but contradictory experiment. The author said in an interview with Il Libraio: «The fact is that twentieth-century anti-fascism no longer holds up to new times and, so, I believe, anti-fascism must be rethought on new bases. Talking about fascism, for the first time in a novel, through the fascists and without ideological prejudices, it is my contribution to the re-foundation of anti-fascism".
If you want to have a few laughs, but also to understand what the point of evoking fascism in debates is, go to the library and get a copy of Tutti fascisti!, brilliant pamphlet by Claudio Quarantotto (Borghese Editions, 1976). It is a list of those who were accused of fascism: Old Houses, Pietro Nenni (from Togliatti), Stalin (there Wilhelm Reich), James Bond (from Eco), Tito and his "clique", the Red Brigades, Continuous fight, Workers' power, the whole bourgeoisie (by André Glucksmann), the calves, the feminists, entrepreneurs. They were proto-fascists: Plato, Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Coriolanus, Dante, Hegel, Hegel's detractors, Garibaldi, Cavour and even God. In the end we have to agree with Leonardo Sciascia: «The finest example of a fascist one can come across today (and we recommend the most accurate cataloging to experts) it is that of the self-styled anti-fascist solely dedicated to calling someone who is not a fascist a fascist".
source – http://m.ilgiornale.it/news/2019/01/15/lossessione-della-sinistra-lo-ha-reso-davvero-eterno/1628936/