In recent years, a series of far-right parties have made their presence felt, more or less everywhere in Europe. They no longer present themselves as disruptive but play the card of institutional normality and exploit the dissatisfaction of the popular classes, trying to become parties of power. Traverso, by analyzing their differences with the historical fascisms of the 20th century, proposes the concept of "metafascism", which emphasizes the transitional nature of an evolving phenomenon, in which we must highlight both the continuity (the often hidden or even disavowed but always visible heritage of classical fascism) and the ruptures (a loose and ambiguous ideology, combining populism and xenophobia). Because, if in the past anti-Semitism was the backbone of European nationalisms, today its place has been taken by Islamophobia (leaving only a marginal position for a new Judeophobia).

However, Traverso tells us, metafascism can be better understood if examined in a broader scenario, where identity politics and mnemonic obsessions find their place, as well as Islamic terrorism and "Islamofascism", the failures of secularization and the repulsions of colonialism - all within a global framework haunted by the disappearance of a "horizon of expectation", by the disappearance and devaluation of utopias.