In Italy, the cultural war is no longer just a metaphor. It has become a daily slogan: The Right claims the Left’s cultural dominance is fading, while the Left warns that the governing Right is imposing a new form of cultural hegemony.
This idea — shaping society’s “common sense” through culture — was coined over a century ago by the Communist Antonio Gramsci. Today, it is everywhere: Quoted, misquoted, weaponised.
As journalist Giorgio Ghiglione, a contributor to The Guardian, noted in Internazionale magazine at the start of 2025: “Countering the cultural hegemony of the Left has become an obsession for the Italian Right, which is now looking for inspiration in the writings of the communist philosopher and politician.”
This week, Rome is Ground Zero. The city hosts Atreju, the annual right-wing festival organised by Fratelli d’Italia, the party of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, and the ECR Study Days, the strategic summit of the European Conservatives and Reformists Party, of which Fratelli d’Italia is a member.
Today and tomorrow, Brussels Signal will cover the ECR Summit and Atreju, highlighting the right’s efforts to claim “cultural space.”
Atreju combines debates, concerts, a skating rink, and a parade of political heavyweights, while the ECR summit gathers ministers, MPs, and strategists from across Europe to map out a new conservative agenda.
The presence of some left-leaning figures at Atreju has sparked outrage, raising a question: Does engaging with the Right defend democracy, or simply normalise and legitimise it?
Since Meloni took office in 2022, critics argue that the Right has been reclaiming cultural space.
The Tolkien exhibition in Rome, held in November 2024 and promoted by the Ministry of Culture, drew accusations of turning a global literary icon into a vehicle for conservative narratives.
A film released in summer 2025 on Amerigo Grilz, a war journalist killed in Mozambique in the 1980s and long side-lined for his ties to the MSI — the party that evolved into Fratelli d’Italia — similarly sparked debate. From outcast to symbol of the governing Right, Grilz embodies a strategy: Staking a claim on public spaces the Right once had little access to.
The debate intensified at Più Libri Più Liberi, Rome’s major small-press book fair, where right-leaning publishers participated. Critics condemned this as an attempt to normalise conservative editorial circles, calling for censorship and exclusion. Brussels Signal reported it as a sign of a broader cultural shift.
Atreju’s guest list further inflamed the discussion. Very prominent journalists such as Enrico Mentana, Maurizio Molinari, and Marco Travaglio, none aligned with the Right, and Bruno Vespa, a mainstay of Italian political broadcasting, are scheduled to appear.
Their presence drew sharp criticism from the Left.
During his intervention at Più Libri Più Liberi yesterday, Roberto Saviano, an icon of Italy’s cultural Left, urged people not to attend Atreju. He defended his right to speak at the festival despite the presence of right-wing publishers — which he considered legitimate — but added: “The problem is going to Atreju.”
He explained that attending is not a neutral act: It means “legitimising as democratic an authoritarian space.” Participation, he warned, “normalises that presence, making it harder to draw a clear line between participation and endorsement”.
Control over culture makes this conflict incendiary. Italian politics has long extended beyond parliament: Into publishing houses, film festivals, universities, editorial offices, and prime-time talk shows. The Left fears the Right is rewriting the system; the Right says the system was never neutral, and now the shift merely restores balance.
As Atreju and the ECR Study Days unfold in Rome, the clash over cultural hegemony is on full display. The governing Right is not just in office; it is contesting the cultural terrain long dominated by the centre-left, using festivals, exhibitions, and films to stake a claim.
Gramsci’s century-old theory, once a blueprint for the Left, now frames a new national drama, with the capital as its stage.
