Com­ment: A recent fis­sure between Ital­ian neo-fas­cist (he calls him­self a “post-fas­cist”) Gian­fran­co Fini and Ital­ian pre­mier Sil­vio Berlus­coni turned up indi­ca­tions of a cabal of pow­er­ful fig­ures, who have clan­des­tine­ly coa­lesced into a secre­tive, piv­otal influ­ence group. (Berlus­coni is pic­tured at right.)

This is rem­i­nis­cent of the sin­is­ter P‑2 Lodge of Licio Gel­li, a cryp­to-fas­cist gov­ern­ment that ran Italy for many years and whose mem­bers con­tin­ue to wield great influ­ence. Berlus­coni was a mem­ber of the P‑2.

Is this group, in effect (or actu­al­ly) P‑2 II?

“Berlus­coni Wins Cen­sure Motion” [AP]; San Fran­cis­co Chron­i­cle; 8/4/2010.

Excerpt: . . . Wednes­day’s cen­sure motion tar­get­ed Jus­tice Min­istry Under­sec­re­tary Gia­co­mo Calien­do, who has been entan­gled in a probe look­ing into a secret asso­ci­a­tion of pow­er­ful fig­ures alleged­ly seek­ing to influ­ence pol­i­tics and jus­tice. Calien­do has denied wrong­do­ing, and has refused to resign. . . . [Ital­ics are Mine–D.E.]