While the Resistance and Constitution were thus supposed to mark a sharp break with the past, in reality the new Republic displayed many elements of continuity. Very few civil servants, judges, or police officers were purged after the war, so that for decades the upper reaches of the state apparatus were dominated by officials formed under Fascism. The Fascist legal codes remained in force, and the Constitutional Court, established to guarantee the new freedoms, was not set up until 1956.

In the economy, the large firms that had prospered under Fascism, including the chemical and electrical monopolies that it had fostered, continued to dominate, and the large state sector it had created remained intact. The ideal of a progressive, democratic and anti‐fascist Republic remained a fond hope more than a real achievement.

Quoting Shira Klein’s ‘Italian Society during World War II’:

In the postwar years, thousands of imprisoned Fascists awaited trial for their crimes, though most walked free. Italians could not agree on how to define and place blame, particularly when so many, including ex-Fascist government ministers, could harness evidence of having helped the Allies at some point.

The British and Americans preferred minimal prosecution, fearing that purging too many Fascists would trigger bureaucratic chaos. As one senior British army officer put it, “If we get rid of everyone who collaborated in the Fascist administration, we are left with practically no one of any use for carrying on.”⁷⁷

The postwar government recognized this and gradually allowed civil servants from the Fascist era to reintegrate into the state apparatus. In addition, the Western powers, and centrists in the Italian government, worried that purging the state of Fascists would bolster the far left, at a time when Cold War fears had begun to trump concerns about the right.

In the final count, of some 400,000 bureaucrats investigated, fewer than 9,000 were deemed guilty, and even they were released with only a reprimand. The courts handed down executions and some lengthy sentences for the most visible and senior officials, but in July 1946 the Ministry of Justice declared a blanket amnesty and all the purges ground to a halt.⁷⁸

Some truly monstrous criminals went unpunished, such as Settimo Rosciolli, who recaptured more than 1,400 escaped POWs and killed at least 37, throwing their bodies into rivers. He went on to become a wine merchant.⁷⁹

The clandestine Gladio network, which Grant Amyot’s paper mentions only once, notably had more than a few ‘former’ Fascists in its ranks. Quoting Daniele Ganser’s NATO’s Secret Armies: Operation GLADIO and Terrorism in Western Europe, pg. 75:

The U.S.‐funded anti‐Communist parallel government P2 and the U.S.‐funded anti‐Communist parallel army Gladio cooperated closely during Italy’s First Republic. Licio Gelli, who after the discovery of the P2 had escaped arrest and fled to South America, after the end of the Cold War was happy to confirm that the secret army was made up of staunch anti‐Communists.

‘Many came from the ranks of mercenaries who had fought in the Spanish Civil War and many came from the fascist republic of Salò. They chose individuals who were proven anti‐Communists. I know it was a well‐constructed organization. Had Communist strength grown in Italy, America would have assisted us, we would have unleashed another war and we would have been generously supplied with arms from the air.’⁶⁶

Gladiators were paid well, Gelli elaborated, for the U.S. spent a lot of money on the network: ‘The Americans paid them large sums of money, the equivalent of an excellent salary. And they guaranteed the financial support of the families in case the Gladiator was killed.’⁶⁷

(Emphasis added in all cases.)