There is no hint of embarrassment as the woman clambers on a chair to reach the high shelf of her newspaper kiosk opposite the Italian interior ministry in Rome. “This is just part of the job,” she says as she hands over the final copy of a 2019 calendar dedicated to the fascist dictator Benito Mussolini.

A flick through from January to December reveals various images of the rotund man known as Il Duce (the Leader): addressing a crowd bare-chested; punching the air in triumph after signing Italy’s 1939 pact with Germany and striding through Rome in military garb.

Nostalgic factions of the Italian population have long helped keep the spirit of Mussolini alive, but thriving rightwing populism has been further dismantling the taboo. Matteo Salvini, the interior minister and leader of the far-right League, sometimes quotes Mussolini, while League supporters have attended rallies carrying signs featuring photographs of the dictator alongside the name Salvini. Marches organised by the neo-fascist groups Forza Nuova and CasaPound have become a regular occurrence.

A Mussolini 2019 calendar on sale in Rome. Photograph: Angela Giuffrida/The Guardian

Gamma 3000, a Rome-based printer, was the first to start producing Mussolini calendars in the early 1990s and now competes with three rivals. Around 10,000 are printed by the company each year and circulated to newsstands across Italy regardless of whether copies were ordered.

“They are included among the newspapers delivered, due to a regulation that allows it,” said Renato Circi, the company’s chief. “But there is no obligation for the newsstand owners to sell them.”

Circi noted that demand for the calendar, which costs €9.90 (£8.90), had gone up alongside the rise in populism.

“Populism recalls historical personalities,” he said. “In particular, we have noticed more of a presence of young people among the new Mussolini fans.”

Steps away from the newsstand is a shop selling bottles of red wine emblazoned with photographs of Mussolini and his murderous counterparts Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin. “People buy them as gifts, perhaps for their fascist friends,” said the shop’s owner, who asked to remain anonymous. “Yes, customers do take offence, but I see it as nothing more than nostalgia.”

Italy’s former centre-left administration brought in a law in 2017 intended to curb the distribution of fascist paraphernalia, but failed to get it approved by both chambers of parliament before the end of its term.

Circi feels no shame in printing the calendars, which can also be found on Amazon. “We produce calendars that range from cats to Pope Francis and Padre Pio to Barbie, because that’s what the market wants. The same with Mussolini – we’re a publishing house that serves the demands of the market.”

During Mussolini’s 20-year dictatorship he sent thousands of Jews to their deaths, interned gay people on the Adriatic island of San Domino, gagged the free press and executed political opponents. Mussolini and his mistress, Clara Petacci, were shot dead by partisans in the final days of the second world war before their bodies were strung up on a meat hook in a Milan square.

One of the reasons his spirit lingers is because some Italians consider him to be the country’s last “strongman” leader, who not only restored law and order but who built better housing, roads, transport systems and schools, while also investing in industry.

Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler attend a military parade together with high officials of the Wehrmacht in 1937. Photograph: Alinari Archives/Getty Images

Silvio Berlusconi, who arrived on the political scene in the early 1990s and went on to lead Italy three times, was the first to help rehabilitate Mussolini’s image by praising the dictator and allying with National Alliance, which emerged from the neo-fascist Italian Social Movement (MSI).

Salvini, who mimics the dictator’s direct but polarising communication style, now keeps him a presence in Italian political life. “Salvini supporters are not necessarily fascist but they don’t accept the pre-emptive rejection of fascism,” said Antonio Scurati, the author of M, a novel about Mussolini’s rise to power. “So they are not outraged if their leader quotes Mussolini as for them it’s more about rejecting the moral superiority of the left which condemns fascism.”

Scurati’s novel has been among Italy’s bestsellers for the past month, but, unlike the calendar buyers, few of the readers are Mussolini admirers. He said: “Ninety-nine percent are those who are against fascism, especially progressive, young people who read a book that finally helps them to understand [that period in history] in an interesting, clear and accessible way.”