Extract

Political History of a Cultural Heritage

The Ex-“Azionisti” and the Idea of Europe in Italian Political Parties

Roberto COLOZZA

Leverhulme Trust visiting fellow, Kingston University, London

Introduction

The history of the Partito d’Azione (Action Party) is actually limited to just a few years (1942-1947). But its impact regarding Italian politico-cultural events went well beyond its chronological boundaries, spanning a number of the decades that followed. Thanks to their strong intellectual background and their links with major periodicals, publishing houses and universities of the time, the ex-Azionisti frequently became opinion makers, spreading their influence into both institutional political life and civil society. This specific phenomenon has been labeled as “azionismo culturale” (cultural Azionismo) in order to underline the mainly intellectual dimension of a formerly political experience.1 The present contribution deals with some specific aspects of the history of the Azionismo, by following the personal trajectories of some of the major ex-Azionisti relative to their engagement with creating a European Federation. In particular, this article focuses on the interaction between the ex-Azionisti and the political parties that they were members of or collaborators with after the Action Party’s dissolution. The traditional approach to studies on the post-Azionismo – analysing the cultural influence of an unachieved militant experience – is reversed here in order to get to the institutional and political implications of an intellectual and cultural attitude whose Europeanism was a very benchmark. ← 175 | 176 →

In fact, European Federalism was one...