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Are there any recorded cases of a nation's populace identifying a growing fascist movement before it fully took control, and then successfully rooting it out without resorting to civil war? Asking for a friend.

Alex Schroeder 🐝 @kensanata

@im Do all the fascist parties count if they’re (not yet) in power? FN in France, AdF in Germany? Did we loose Austria to FPÖ or are they not established enough? SVP in Switzerland is part of the majority but doesn’t hold power in its own, either. So, there’s still hope as long as the institutions make it through the brown years.

@kensanata @im Maybe not meaningfully until their base shrinks (which is different from their being pushed out). The danger right now in Europe is that all of this is playing out right now in whole range of polities which, for different reasons, might have been thought resilient. UK is not Germany is not Austria is not the Czech Republic is not Hungary, but there are similarities in the threat in all.
@kensanata @im please do not write things about austria 🇦🇹 without adding that actual government works pretty efficient. spending more money then a government has income has to be stopped. tax changes was required here too. spö, neos, green ones and pilz have not one serious argument against the government. you have some people here in Austria don‘t know?

@karl @im I used to be Austrian, I have family in Austria, my dad lives in Vienna, my sister lives in Klagenfurt, and every now and then I drive past the curve where Haider died in a car crash and it is still full of flowers. I feel quite qualified to write about Austria. The budget is not the most important part of government.

@kensanata @karl @im Budget is a huge part of government. If you create debits killing your country, you do something wrong IMHO. but every serious argument for sure is fine for discussion.

@kmj @karl @im Sure, but how does the budget compare to fascism? Was Hitler good for the budget? Was Pinochet good for the budget? Franco? Salazar? I don’t care!

@kensanata @im @kmj i was in former eastern europe countries since the late 80‘s. you are sure this made sense for the people there? you are an older boy too, so i sm sure you remember. nearly nothing is black or white, 95% of the worlds decisions are gray. but people today tries to get white or black. consens is the mid way. continued
@kensanata @im @kmj @kensanata @im @kmj and comparing haider with hitler is kinda childisch in my opinion. there is a legal bandwidth in every country. as long as it is legal one has to face 360 degrees of the world.

@karl I find the Ur-Fascism article by Umberto Eco still relevant today.

@kensanata I guess "in power" is fairly vague. I think consolidation of power and abolition of competing ideologies is an essential part of the descent into fascism and it certainly doesn't look like any of the parties you've listed have achieved that, but nor is it clear that they've been defeated in any decisive sense. Anyway, these are more contemporary examples than historical ones.