An Eternal Recurrence: Are the Core Concepts of the European New Right Fascist?

Abstract

This article analyses the elements of continuity and divergence between the core concepts of Classical Fascism (1919-1945) and those of the European New Right, in both its forms: the orthodox, embodied by Alain de Benoist, and the heterodox, represented by Guillaume Faye and Pierre Vial. Though these authors differ in terms of whether they provide explicit support for neo-populist political formations, they share a Heideggerian/ Dasein vision of the world. In their publications they present the same diagnosis of the situation (spiritual and/or racial decadence), set the same priority objectives (palingenesis) and use the same cultural reference points (for example, Friedrich Nietzsche and the German Revolutionary Conservatives of the first third of the twentieth century). In view of these traits, it seems justifiable to label them as twenty-first century neo-Nazis. Above all if we show (as we aim to do in this article) that their conceptions of man and nature (for example, man as an aggressive, hierarchical and territorial being) are the same as those of the ideologues of Classical Fascism.