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.

(Emphasis added.)

The clandestine Gladio network, which the 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 US‐funded anti‐Communist parallel government P2 and the US‐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.’ Gladiators were paid well, Gelli elaborated, for the US 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.”

(Emphasis added.)