The past that does not want to pass away? A few remarks on the debate surrounding the project to establish a museum of fascism in Predappio

This chapter dives into salient yet conflicting narratives on the project to establish a museum of fascism in Predappio, taking into account both the historiographical debates and political disputes surrounding the assessment of Benito Mussolini’s rule. In the period between 2014 and 2019, leading Italian and international historians, together with public intellectuals, journalists, and politicians, were involved in a dispute concerning the character of the project itself and its consequences. To understand the complexity of this debate, it is essential to explain the meaning of the Predappio museum in the political culture of Italian fascism and neo-fascism, as well as the impact of the policy of local governments, primarily centre-left ones, which aimed at remaking the image of the city, which Giorgio Frassinetti –the former mayor and main spiritus movens of the project – described as its ‘“Chernobyl” history’.