If you look at
what Mussolini actually did:
-"advanced economic liberalism, along with minor privatization"
- "simplified the tax code, cut taxes, curbed spending, liberalized trade restrictions and abolished rent controls"
- "The government moved toward resolving class conflicts in favour of corporatism. In the short term, the government worked to reform the widely abused tax system, dispose of inefficient state-owned industry, cut government costs and introduce tariffs to protect the new industries"
- "Referring to the economics of John Maynard Keynes as "useful introduction to fascist economics", Mussolini spent Italy into a structural deficit that grew exponentially."
- "A former school teacher, Mussolini’s spending on the public sector, schools and infrastructure was considered extravagant.
- "Bridges, canals and roads were built, hospitals and schools, railway stations and orphanages; swamps were drained and land reclaimed, forests were planted and universities were endowed".
- "embarked upon an elaborate program" that included food supplementary assistance, infant care, maternity assistance, general healthcare, wage supplements, paid vacations, unemployment benefits, illness insurance, occupational disease insurance, general family assistance, public housing and old age and disability insurance."
Mussolini wasn't a progressive or a conservative by todays standards. He was both.
And none of that means absolutely anything. Just because someone agrees with something that Mussolini did does not say anything about their proximity to fascism. It's just bad logic.
That's like saying anybody who likes schools is likely to be a fascist, because Mussolini really liked schools.