Dealing with a difficult past: historical memories of the Vichy regime and fascism in the ideology of the Rassemblement National and the Lega

This article studies the role played by historical memories in the political ideology of the Front National (FN, rebranded Rassemblement National – RN) in France and the Lega Nord (LN, renamed just Lega) in Italy. Although these parties currently show ideological affinity, their relationships with the memories of World War II and the regimes that ruled their countries at that time have followed diverging trajectories. While the FN/RN under the leadership of Marine Le Pen has emphasised the rejection of the nostalgic views of the Vichy regime that characterised the FN of Jean-Marie Le Pen, the LN/Lega has abandoned its early anti-fascist stances to adopt revisionist theses about fascism. To explain these contrasting patterns, this article claims that the FN/RN and the LN/Lega have adapted their ideologies to the national memories and the developments of the political contexts. It concludes that radical right populist parties are more likely to reject nostalgic attitudes towards past authoritarian and fascist regimes when national political cultures show a deterioration in the memory of these regimes that constrains the ideological space in which a party can hold nostalgic stances. The opposite occurs when exculpatory attitudes towards the memory of the authoritarian and fascist past prevail.