Italian Social Movement
Encyclopedia
The Italian Social Movement (MSI), and later the Italian Social Movement–National Right , was a neo-fascist
and post-fascist political party in Italy. Formed in 1946 by supporters of former Italian dictator Benito Mussolini
, the party became the fourth largest party in Italy by the early 1960s. The MSI gave informal local and eventually national support to the Christian Democrats
from the late 1940s and through the 1950s. In the early 1960s, the party was pushed to the sidelines of Italian politics, and only gradually started to gain some political recognition in the 1980s.
The party saw internal competition between its conservative (moderate) and radical factions. The radicals led the party in its formative years under Giorgio Almirante
, while the conservatives gained control in the 1950s and 1960s. Almirante's return as leader in 1969 was followed by a broadening policy, until the leadership was left to Gianfranco Fini
in 1987. The MSI underwent significant changes under the leadership of Fini, its final leader, and it was eventually transformed into the National Alliance
(AN) in the mid 1990s. The party's breakthrough in Italian politics through its cooperation with political newcomer Silvio Berlusconi
and his Forza Italia
party had its background in the Tangentopoli
corruption scandals of the early 1990s, which resulted in the dissolution of the traditional Italian political parties. The MSI was formally dissolved and merged into AN in 1995.
The MSI derived its name and ideals from the Italian Social Republic
(RSI), established by Benito Mussolini
in 1943 behind Nazi German
lines. The dominating party of the republic, Mussolini's Republican Fascist Party
(PFR), inspired the creation of the MSI, and the MSI has been seen as the successor to both the PFR as well as the original National Fascist Party
(PNF). The MSI was formed by former fascist leaders and veterans of the republic's fascist army
. The party nevertheless tried to modernise and revise fascist doctrine into a more moderate and sophisticated direction.
The MSI also drew from elements of the short-lived postwar populist Front of the Ordinary Man protest party.
, and former fascist government official Giorgio Almirante
became the party's first leader. The three initial main goals of the party were to revive Mussolini's fascism, attack the Italian democracy and fight communism
. However, due to the post-war Italian constitution
and agreements with the Allied forces, advocating a return to fascism had to be done discreetly. Although it adapted itself into the constraints of the democratic environment, its manifest ideology was clearly antagonistic and antithetical to liberal democracy.
The MSI initially won financial support from wealthy businessmen and landowners due to their fears of a possible communist Italy. In the first general election it contested
, in 1948, the party won seven deputies and one senator. The party soon witnessed growing conflicts between conservatives who sought involvement in NATO and political alliances with monarchists and Christian Democrats
, and hardliners who wanted the party to be anti-American and anti-establishment. Almirante was replaced as leader of the MSI in 1950 due to his uncompromising anti-NATO position. He was replaced by conservative Augusto De Marsanich
, under whose leadership the party won some strong electoral gains.
. The conservative elements dominated the party in the 1950s and 1960s, and it maintained a rather moderate course. By the late 1950s, the MSI had become Italy's fourth largest party, and the Italian party system was unique in Europe in terms of having a continual and significant neo-fascist presence since the end of World War II
. Michelini established the strategy of inserimento (insertion) during his leadership of the party, meaning to gain acceptance through cooperation with other parties. Disgruntled by the MSI's focus on parliamentarism and attempts to establish an image of democratic respectability, the radicals of the party broke out and established several separate groups. Pino Rauti
and others broke out in 1956 and founded the Ordine Nuovo
party, while Stefano Delle Chiaie
founded the National Vanguard
.
Already in the late 1940s, the Christian Democrats, somewhat reluctantly, had discreetly accepted support from the MSI to keep the communists out of the Rome city government. The Christian Democrats further accepted the backing from the party (along with the Monarchists and Liberals) to prop up their minority governments in the late 1950s. In 1960 the MSI even became the sole backer of the Christian Democratic minority government, which had enormous political implications. During the MSI's 1960 national congress in Genoa
, militant anti-fascist protests erupted due to leftist concerns over the party's growing role in Italian politics. These protests spread to other Italian cities, resulting in violent and lethal clashes with police, and led the government to ban the MSI's congress from taking place. The government itself resigned a few days later, which relegated the MSI to the sidelines, and started the party's decline. This event marked the failed end of the inserimento strategy.
In the early 1960s, riots became commonplace between MSI supporters and radical leftists. Following the victory of a centre-left government in 1963, the Christian Democrats no longer needed the parliamentary support of the MSI. The party was thus sidelined by all the other parties, and its main objective became to get back into the political game.
had been devastating for the party's youth organisation. Following Michelini's failed approach of inserimento, Almirante introduced a double strategy of hard anti-systemic discourse combined with the creation of a broader "National Right" (Destra Nazionale) coalition. He broadened the party in both conservative and radical directions, as he initiated cooperation and eventual merger with the Monarchist National Party
, and reintegrated Rauti and other radicals into the party.
The party grew strongly in the early 1970s, and almost doubled its support in the 1972 general election
, having contested the election in a joint list with the Monarchists. The MSI claimed 420,000 members in 1973, but its support receded in the 1976 general election
, and many conservatives left the party, leaving it with 279,000 members that year. The moderates formed the National Democracy
party, but although it took with it half the MSI parliamentary representation and almost all of its public finance, the new party was eliminated by the next general election
.
During the late 1970s and early 1980s, the second wave of right-wing terrorism in Italy led some MSI members to become radicalised, and some left the party to form new groups. The MSI became gradually more tolerated by the mainstream parties, as its insistent denunciations of violence gained credibility. The political climate was also de-radicalized following a new wave of studies and "historicisation" of fascism, widely debated in the mass media, which also led the MSI to become less stigmatised than it had been previously. After becoming prime minister in 1983, Bettino Craxi
of the Italian Socialist Party
met with MSI leaders, and later his office issued a statement that expressed regret for the "ghettoisation" of the party. In 1984, high-level representatives of the Christian Democrats, the Liberals
and the Democratic Socialists
attended the party congress of the MSI for the first time. The next year, it was granted one position on the board of directors of the RAI
, the state radio and television network.
took over the party leadership from Almirante in 1987, as his anointed successor and favoured candidate by the party's old guard. However, following Almirante's death the next year, Fini was left without his protector. Fini was then viewed as a weak leader, unable to turn around the decline and isolation of the party, and he adopted provocative initiatives against the internal opposition. In 1990 Rauti briefly gained the leadership of the party from Fini, but his revolutionary, anti-capitalist and leftist (yet loyal fascist) approach further alienated the party's supporters. As a result, Fini regained the leadership in 1991. Fini now sought to downplay the fascist origins of the MSI, further dividing the party into factions. He transformed the MSI into the more moderate National Alliance
(AN), going farther than Almirante's 1970s "National Right" strategy. Fini was soon viewed as a skilful political operator and he gained the support of the party majority.
In the Tangentopoli
scandals of the early 1990s, a pool of judges discovered a widespread system of corruption in all of the mainstream parties, and many key politicians were brought on trial. The scandals were devastating for the mainstream parties and resulted in their dissolutions. As the so-called "First Republic" collapsed, the MSI remained uninvolved in the scandals due to not having taken part in the Italian political life. Nevertheless, a radical transformation was required to break away from its fascist heritage. At the same time, the end of the Cold War
helped to de-radicalise Italian politics. The corruption scandals also led the political competition in Italy to become very personalised, and in 1993, Fini and Alessandra Mussolini
surprisingly won unprecedented large support when running for mayor in Rome and Naples, respectively. Although they lost their elections, they each won about 45% of the vote.
The AN project was launched in 1993, contested the 1994 general election
, and in January 1995, the MSI was finally dissolved and replaced by AN. Rauti and other radicals attempted to reconstitute the MSI as Tricolour Flame, but with only modest success. Fini in turn went on to lead AN to huge electoral gains, into the Pole of Good Government
coalition with political newcomer Silvio Berlusconi
and his Forza Italia
party, and eventually into part of his governments. The party's part in the 1994 government
met strong criticism from several European politicians, but did not manifest itself in any diplomatic implications. In just a few years, Fini had turned the MSI from a position of stagnation to one of participation in a government coalition. Although long-term and other short-term factors were part of the new fortunes for the party, it could arguably hardly have happened without the effects of the Tangentopoli scandals.
, and hostility towards social minorities and civil liberties. It advocated a centralised state with a presidential form of government, and no devolution of powers to regions. The party pursued a dualistic policy, in which it combined anti-systemic discourse with a practical policy of electoral cooperation with the mainstream right. Although it was for a long time preoccupied with the debate of fascism and anti-fascism, the party distanced itself from this in the early 1990s to rather focus on contemporary Italian issues. While both wings of the party agreed after the 1950s that fascism was dead, they nevertheless saw some good things in fascism which they wanted to reinstitute. When the party transformed itself into the AN, it outspokenly rejected fascism, as well as "any kind of totalitarianism and racism." In contrast to other far-right parties in Europe which increased their power in the late 1980s, the MSI chose to not campaign against immigration.
called the "fascism-movement" and the "fascism-regime", roughly also corresponding to the party's "northern" and "southern" factions. The former "leftist"-tendency was more militant and radical, and claimed heritage from the socialistic and anti-bourgeois "republican" fascism of the Italian Social Republic and pre-1922 fascism. The latter drew more from the mainstream clerical, conservative, authoritarian, and bourgeois fascist tendency that prevailed after the stabilisation of the fascist regime.
Most of the party's initial leaders were northern radicals, but most of its support was from voters in the South. In the North, the party elite to a large extent consisted of highly ideological veterans from the civil war. As the Italian Social Republic (RSI) had not existed in the South, and there thus had been no civil war, the southern MSI-supporters and notables were by contrast largely moderate-conservatives, less interested in ideology. When the conservatives gained power of the party in the 1950s, they steered it more towards the traditional clerical and monarchist right-wing.
. The party supported Italy's inclusion in the European Monetary System
in 1979, as well as the installation of American cruise missiles in Sicily in 1983.
was established after conferences in Rome in 1950 and Malmö
, Sweden, in 1951. The conference in Malmö was attended by around one hundred delegates from French, British, German, Austrian, Italian, Spanish, Hungarian, and Swedish neo-fascist groups, with some notable figures including Maurice Bardèche
, Karl-Heinz Priester
, Oswald Mosley
, and Per Engdahl
. The MSI was also part of the New European Order
, together with, among others, the Falange
and the Socialist Reich Party
. Due to the MSI's support for continued Italian control of South Tyrol
, German-speaking delegates eventually left the NEO. Growing divisions and external competition left both groups largely moribund by 1957. At a conference in Venice
in 1962, the National Party of Europe
was formed by the MSI, the Union Movement
, the Deutsche Reichspartei
, Jeune Europe
, and the Mouvement d'Action Civique
. The group was effectively defunct by 1966.
In response to the development of "eurocommunism
" in the mid-1970s, Almirante initiated the first conference of a "Euro-Right" in Rome in 1978. The meeting included the francoist New Force, France's Party of New Forces (PFN), and parties from Belgium, Portugal, and Greece. The parties were unable to gather enough support to establish a group in the European Parliament
following the 1979 European election
. After the 1984 European election
, the MSI was finally able to establish a European Right
group, together with the French National Front (which had emerged victorious from its rivalry with the PFN) and the Greek National Political Union
. However, following the 1989 European election
, the MSI refused to join the new European Right
group over the territorial dispute of South Tyrol, due to the arrival of The Republicans, a German party which supported South Tyrol claims made by the Freedom Party of South Tyrol
. Neither The Republicans, nor the Belgian Vlaams Blok
party, wanted to form a group with the MSI over this issue. As the MSI transformed itself into AN, it distanced itself from increasingly powerful European far-right parties such as France's National Front and the Freedom Party of Austria
.
The electoral support for the MSI fluctuated around 5 percent, with its supporting peaking in 1972 at almost 9 percent. The party's popular support came mostly from the southern underclass and the rural oligarchy
until the 1960s, and later from the urban middle class
es, especially in Rome
, Naples
, Bari
, and the other cities of the Centre-South. Its supporters consisted demographically of old fascists, lower-middle-class shopkeepers, and artisans, as well as a number of bureaucrats, police
, and military
. Reasons to vote for the MSI included protest votes, nostalgia, and support for traditional values, as well as southern resentment of the North
. As the old fascist veterans started to fade away, the party in turn gained support from alienated youth groups.
Although most of the party's initial leaders were radicals from the North, the party's electoral base was in the South. In its first election, almost 70 percent of the party's votes came from regions south of Rome, and all of its elected parliamentary representatives came from southern constituencies. In the 1952 local elections, the MSI–Monarchist alliance won 11.8% of the votes in the South. In 1972, when the MSI was at its peak, it won 14.8% in Lazio (17.4% in Rome and 21.0% in Latina
), 16.7% in Campania
(26.3% in Naples and 22.2% in Salerno
), 12.5% in Apulia
(21.0% in Lecce
, 18.8% in Bari, and 18.4% in Foggia
), 12.2% in Calabria
(36.3% in Reggio Calabria
), 15.9% in Sicily
(30.6% in Catania
, 24.4% in Messina, and 20.7% in Siracusa) and 11.3% in Sardinia
(16.0% in Cagliari
).
By the beginning of the 1990s the MSI had strengthened its position, especially in Lazio, and, when the Christian Democrats disbanded in 1993–94, the MSI was able to attract many Christian Democratic voters in Central
and Southern Italy, as well as many formerly Socialist
votes, especially in Friuli-Venezia Giulia
. In some places, such as Lazio, the MSI became the new dominant political force. At a time when Lega Nord was booming in the North, several voters south of the Po River
liked the MSI's appeals to Italian identity and unity. In the 1996 general election
, the first after the transformation of the MSI into AN, the Italian right-wing won its best result ever: 15.7% nationally, 28.9% in Lazio (where, with 31.3%, AN was the largest party in Rome), 19.8% in Umbria
, 21.1% in Abruzzo
, 20.0% in Campania, 23.5% in Basilicata
, 22.1% in Apulia, 20.9% in Calabria, and 20.3% in Sardinia.
Neo-Fascism
Neo-fascism is a post–World War II ideology that includes significant elements of fascism. The term neo-fascist may apply to groups that express a specific admiration for Benito Mussolini and Italian Fascism or any other fascist leader/state...
and post-fascist political party in Italy. Formed in 1946 by supporters of former Italian dictator Benito Mussolini
Benito Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism....
, the party became the fourth largest party in Italy by the early 1960s. The MSI gave informal local and eventually national support to the Christian Democrats
Christian Democracy (Italy)
Christian Democracy was a Christian democratic party in Italy. It was founded in 1943 as the ideological successor of the historical Italian People's Party, which had the same symbol, a crossed shield ....
from the late 1940s and through the 1950s. In the early 1960s, the party was pushed to the sidelines of Italian politics, and only gradually started to gain some political recognition in the 1980s.
The party saw internal competition between its conservative (moderate) and radical factions. The radicals led the party in its formative years under Giorgio Almirante
Giorgio Almirante
Giorgio Almirante was an Italian politician, the founder and leader of the Italian Social Movement until his retirement in 1987.-Early life:...
, while the conservatives gained control in the 1950s and 1960s. Almirante's return as leader in 1969 was followed by a broadening policy, until the leadership was left to Gianfranco Fini
Gianfranco Fini
Gianfranco Fini is an Italian politician, President of the Italian Chamber of Deputies, leader of the center-right Future and Freedom party, and the former leader of the conservative National Alliance and the post-fascist Italian Social Movement...
in 1987. The MSI underwent significant changes under the leadership of Fini, its final leader, and it was eventually transformed into the National Alliance
National Alliance (Italy)
National Alliance was a conservative political party in Italy.Gianfranco Fini was the leader of the party since its foundation in 1995, however he stepped down in 2008 after being elected to the nominally non-partisan post of President of the Italian Chamber of Deputies and was succeeded by...
(AN) in the mid 1990s. The party's breakthrough in Italian politics through its cooperation with political newcomer Silvio Berlusconi
Silvio Berlusconi
Silvio Berlusconi , also known as Il Cavaliere – from knighthood to the Order of Merit for Labour which he received in 1977 – is an Italian politician and businessman who served three terms as Prime Minister of Italy, from 1994 to 1995, 2001 to 2006, and 2008 to 2011. Berlusconi is also the...
and his Forza Italia
Forza Italia
Forza Italia was a liberal-conservative, Christian democratic, and liberal political party in Italy, with a large social democratic minority, that was led by Silvio Berlusconi, four times Prime Minister of Italy....
party had its background in the Tangentopoli
Tangentopoli
Tangentopoli is a term which was coined to describe pervasive corruption in the Italian political system exposed in the 1992-6 Mani Pulite investigations, as well as the resulting scandal, which led to the collapse of the hitherto dominant Christian Democracy party and its allies.-Popular distrust...
corruption scandals of the early 1990s, which resulted in the dissolution of the traditional Italian political parties. The MSI was formally dissolved and merged into AN in 1995.
Background
Italian Social Republic
The Italian Social Republic was a puppet state of Nazi Germany led by the "Duce of the Nation" and "Minister of Foreign Affairs" Benito Mussolini and his Republican Fascist Party. The RSI exercised nominal sovereignty in northern Italy but was largely dependent on the Wehrmacht to maintain control...
(RSI), established by Benito Mussolini
Benito Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism....
in 1943 behind Nazi German
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
lines. The dominating party of the republic, Mussolini's Republican Fascist Party
Republican Fascist Party
The Republican Fascist Party was a political party led by Benito Mussolini during the German occupation of Central and Northern Italy. It was founded as the successor of former National Fascist Party as an anti-monarchist party...
(PFR), inspired the creation of the MSI, and the MSI has been seen as the successor to both the PFR as well as the original National Fascist Party
National Fascist Party
The National Fascist Party was an Italian political party, created by Benito Mussolini as the political expression of fascism...
(PNF). The MSI was formed by former fascist leaders and veterans of the republic's fascist army
Esercito Nazionale Repubblicano
The National Republican Army was the army of the Italian Social Republic from 1943 to 1945 that fought on the side of Nazi Germany during World War II....
. The party nevertheless tried to modernise and revise fascist doctrine into a more moderate and sophisticated direction.
The MSI also drew from elements of the short-lived postwar populist Front of the Ordinary Man protest party.
Early years (1946–1954)
The MSI was formed by a group of fascist veterans on 26 December 1946 in RomeRome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
, and former fascist government official Giorgio Almirante
Giorgio Almirante
Giorgio Almirante was an Italian politician, the founder and leader of the Italian Social Movement until his retirement in 1987.-Early life:...
became the party's first leader. The three initial main goals of the party were to revive Mussolini's fascism, attack the Italian democracy and fight communism
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
. However, due to the post-war Italian constitution
Constitution of Italy
The Constitution of the Italian Republic was enacted by the Constituent Assembly on 22 December 1947, with 453 votes in favour and 62 against. The text, which has since been amended 13 times, was promulgated in the extraordinary edition of Gazzetta Ufficiale No. 298 on 27 December 1947...
and agreements with the Allied forces, advocating a return to fascism had to be done discreetly. Although it adapted itself into the constraints of the democratic environment, its manifest ideology was clearly antagonistic and antithetical to liberal democracy.
The MSI initially won financial support from wealthy businessmen and landowners due to their fears of a possible communist Italy. In the first general election it contested
Italian general election, 1948
The Italian elections of 1948 were the second democratic elections with universal suffrage ever held in Italy, taking place after the 1946 elections to the Constituent Assembly, responsible for drawing up a new Italian Constitution...
, in 1948, the party won seven deputies and one senator. The party soon witnessed growing conflicts between conservatives who sought involvement in NATO and political alliances with monarchists and Christian Democrats
Christian Democracy (Italy)
Christian Democracy was a Christian democratic party in Italy. It was founded in 1943 as the ideological successor of the historical Italian People's Party, which had the same symbol, a crossed shield ....
, and hardliners who wanted the party to be anti-American and anti-establishment. Almirante was replaced as leader of the MSI in 1950 due to his uncompromising anti-NATO position. He was replaced by conservative Augusto De Marsanich
Augusto De Marsanich
Augusto De Marsanich was an Italian National Fascist Party politician and the second leader of the Italian Social Movement ....
, under whose leadership the party won some strong electoral gains.
Arturo Michelini (1954–1969)
Four years later, in 1954, De Marsanich was replaced by Arturo MicheliniArturo Michelini
Arturo Michelini was an Italian politician and Secretary of the Italian Social Movement.Michelini was born in Florence. An accountant by profession, he was a lower to middle-ranking figure in the National Fascist Party, rising to become secretary of the party in Rome...
. The conservative elements dominated the party in the 1950s and 1960s, and it maintained a rather moderate course. By the late 1950s, the MSI had become Italy's fourth largest party, and the Italian party system was unique in Europe in terms of having a continual and significant neo-fascist presence since the end of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. Michelini established the strategy of inserimento (insertion) during his leadership of the party, meaning to gain acceptance through cooperation with other parties. Disgruntled by the MSI's focus on parliamentarism and attempts to establish an image of democratic respectability, the radicals of the party broke out and established several separate groups. Pino Rauti
Pino Rauti
Giuseppe Umberto "Pino" Rauti is an Italian politician who has been a leading figure on the far right for many years...
and others broke out in 1956 and founded the Ordine Nuovo
Ordine Nuovo
Ordine Nuovo , full name Centro Studi Ordine Nuovo, "New Order Scholarship Center") was an Italian far right cultural and extra-parliamentary political and terrorist organization founded by Pino Rauti in 1956...
party, while Stefano Delle Chiaie
Stefano Delle Chiaie
Stefano Delle Chiaie is a neofascist Italian activist . He went on to become a wanted man worldwide, suspect to be involved in Italy's strategy of tension, but was acquitted. He was a friend of Licio Gelli, grandmaster of P2 masonic lodge...
founded the National Vanguard
National Vanguard (Italy)
The National Vanguard is a name that has been used for at least two neo-fascist groups in Italy.-Original group:The original National Vanguard was an extra-parliamentary movement formed as a breakaway group from the Italian Social Movement by Stefano Delle Chiaie in 1960, initially based around a...
.
Already in the late 1940s, the Christian Democrats, somewhat reluctantly, had discreetly accepted support from the MSI to keep the communists out of the Rome city government. The Christian Democrats further accepted the backing from the party (along with the Monarchists and Liberals) to prop up their minority governments in the late 1950s. In 1960 the MSI even became the sole backer of the Christian Democratic minority government, which had enormous political implications. During the MSI's 1960 national congress in Genoa
Genoa
Genoa |Ligurian]] Zena ; Latin and, archaically, English Genua) is a city and an important seaport in northern Italy, the capital of the Province of Genoa and of the region of Liguria....
, militant anti-fascist protests erupted due to leftist concerns over the party's growing role in Italian politics. These protests spread to other Italian cities, resulting in violent and lethal clashes with police, and led the government to ban the MSI's congress from taking place. The government itself resigned a few days later, which relegated the MSI to the sidelines, and started the party's decline. This event marked the failed end of the inserimento strategy.
In the early 1960s, riots became commonplace between MSI supporters and radical leftists. Following the victory of a centre-left government in 1963, the Christian Democrats no longer needed the parliamentary support of the MSI. The party was thus sidelined by all the other parties, and its main objective became to get back into the political game.
Giorgio Almirante (1969–1987)
Michelini was the leader of the party until his death in 1969, when the party's first leader Almirante regained control. He attempted to revitalise the party by pursuing an aggressive policy against left-wing student uprisings; the 1968 student movementProtests of 1968
The protests of 1968 consisted of a worldwide series of protests, largely participated in by students and workers.-Background:Background speculations of overall causality vary about the political protests centering on the year 1968. Some argue that protests could be attributed to the social changes...
had been devastating for the party's youth organisation. Following Michelini's failed approach of inserimento, Almirante introduced a double strategy of hard anti-systemic discourse combined with the creation of a broader "National Right" (Destra Nazionale) coalition. He broadened the party in both conservative and radical directions, as he initiated cooperation and eventual merger with the Monarchist National Party
Monarchist National Party
The Monarchist National Party was a political party in Italy founded in 1946, uniting conservatives, liberal conservatives, conservative liberals and nationalists...
, and reintegrated Rauti and other radicals into the party.
The party grew strongly in the early 1970s, and almost doubled its support in the 1972 general election
Italian general election, 1972
The Italian elections of 1972 were held on May 7. The sixth Parliament of republican Italy was selected, while voters were 37,049,654 for the Chamber of Deputies and 34,524,108 for the Senate....
, having contested the election in a joint list with the Monarchists. The MSI claimed 420,000 members in 1973, but its support receded in the 1976 general election
Italian general election, 1976
The Italian elections of 1976 were held on June 20. The seventh Parliament of republican Italy was selected. These were the first elections where 18-year-old boys and girls were allowed to vote....
, and many conservatives left the party, leaving it with 279,000 members that year. The moderates formed the National Democracy
National Democracy (Italy)
The National Democracy party was a spin-off of Movimento Sociale Italiano, after the electoral defeat of 1976. It was born to pursue an agreement with the Democrazia Cristiana party, by moving from the neo-fascist ideology of the Movimento Sociale Italiano to a post-fascist moderate ideology.The...
party, but although it took with it half the MSI parliamentary representation and almost all of its public finance, the new party was eliminated by the next general election
Italian general election, 1979
The Italian election of 1979 was held on June 3. The eighth Parliament of republican Italy was selected. This election was called just a week before the European vote: the lack of matching between the two elections caused much controversy for wasting public money.Terroristic attacks by the Red...
.
During the late 1970s and early 1980s, the second wave of right-wing terrorism in Italy led some MSI members to become radicalised, and some left the party to form new groups. The MSI became gradually more tolerated by the mainstream parties, as its insistent denunciations of violence gained credibility. The political climate was also de-radicalized following a new wave of studies and "historicisation" of fascism, widely debated in the mass media, which also led the MSI to become less stigmatised than it had been previously. After becoming prime minister in 1983, Bettino Craxi
Bettino Craxi
Benedetto Craxi was an Italian politician, head of the Italian Socialist Party from 1976 to 1993, the first socialist President of the Council of Ministers of Italy from 1983 to 1987.-Political career:...
of the Italian Socialist Party
Italian Socialist Party
The Italian Socialist Party was a socialist and later social-democratic political party in Italy founded in Genoa in 1892.Once the dominant leftist party in Italy, it was eclipsed in status by the Italian Communist Party following World War II...
met with MSI leaders, and later his office issued a statement that expressed regret for the "ghettoisation" of the party. In 1984, high-level representatives of the Christian Democrats, the Liberals
Italian Liberal Party
The Italian Liberal Party was a liberal political party in Italy.-Origins:The origins of liberalism in Italy came from the so-called "Historical Right", a parliamentary group formed by Camillo Benso di Cavour in the Parliament of the Kingdom of Sardinia following the 1848 revolution...
and the Democratic Socialists
Italian Democratic Socialist Party
The Italian Democratic Socialist Party is a minor social-democratic political party in Italy. Mimmo Magistro is the party leader. The PSDI, before the 1990s decline in votes and members, had been an important force in Italian politics, being the longest serving partner in government for Christian...
attended the party congress of the MSI for the first time. The next year, it was granted one position on the board of directors of the RAI
RAI
RAI — Radiotelevisione italiana S.p.A. known until 1954 as Radio Audizioni Italiane, is the Italian state owned public service broadcaster controlled by the Ministry of Economic Development. Rai is the biggest television company in Italy...
, the state radio and television network.
Gianfranco Fini (1987–1995)
Gianfranco FiniGianfranco Fini
Gianfranco Fini is an Italian politician, President of the Italian Chamber of Deputies, leader of the center-right Future and Freedom party, and the former leader of the conservative National Alliance and the post-fascist Italian Social Movement...
took over the party leadership from Almirante in 1987, as his anointed successor and favoured candidate by the party's old guard. However, following Almirante's death the next year, Fini was left without his protector. Fini was then viewed as a weak leader, unable to turn around the decline and isolation of the party, and he adopted provocative initiatives against the internal opposition. In 1990 Rauti briefly gained the leadership of the party from Fini, but his revolutionary, anti-capitalist and leftist (yet loyal fascist) approach further alienated the party's supporters. As a result, Fini regained the leadership in 1991. Fini now sought to downplay the fascist origins of the MSI, further dividing the party into factions. He transformed the MSI into the more moderate National Alliance
National Alliance (Italy)
National Alliance was a conservative political party in Italy.Gianfranco Fini was the leader of the party since its foundation in 1995, however he stepped down in 2008 after being elected to the nominally non-partisan post of President of the Italian Chamber of Deputies and was succeeded by...
(AN), going farther than Almirante's 1970s "National Right" strategy. Fini was soon viewed as a skilful political operator and he gained the support of the party majority.
In the Tangentopoli
Tangentopoli
Tangentopoli is a term which was coined to describe pervasive corruption in the Italian political system exposed in the 1992-6 Mani Pulite investigations, as well as the resulting scandal, which led to the collapse of the hitherto dominant Christian Democracy party and its allies.-Popular distrust...
scandals of the early 1990s, a pool of judges discovered a widespread system of corruption in all of the mainstream parties, and many key politicians were brought on trial. The scandals were devastating for the mainstream parties and resulted in their dissolutions. As the so-called "First Republic" collapsed, the MSI remained uninvolved in the scandals due to not having taken part in the Italian political life. Nevertheless, a radical transformation was required to break away from its fascist heritage. At the same time, the end of the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
helped to de-radicalise Italian politics. The corruption scandals also led the political competition in Italy to become very personalised, and in 1993, Fini and Alessandra Mussolini
Alessandra Mussolini
Alessandra Mussolini is an Italian politician, the granddaughter of Benito Mussolini, and previously an actress and model...
surprisingly won unprecedented large support when running for mayor in Rome and Naples, respectively. Although they lost their elections, they each won about 45% of the vote.
The AN project was launched in 1993, contested the 1994 general election
Italian general election, 1994
An early national general election was held in Italy on March 27, 1994 to elect members of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate. Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right alliance won handily the election for the Chamber and only narrowly lost that for the Senate....
, and in January 1995, the MSI was finally dissolved and replaced by AN. Rauti and other radicals attempted to reconstitute the MSI as Tricolour Flame, but with only modest success. Fini in turn went on to lead AN to huge electoral gains, into the Pole of Good Government
Pole of Good Government
The Pole of Good Government was a centre-right electoral alliance in Italy, launched at the 1994 general election by Silvio Berlusconi.The alliance was composed primarily of Forza Italia and the National Alliance, but also included Christian Democratic Centre , the Union of the Centre and Liberal...
coalition with political newcomer Silvio Berlusconi
Silvio Berlusconi
Silvio Berlusconi , also known as Il Cavaliere – from knighthood to the Order of Merit for Labour which he received in 1977 – is an Italian politician and businessman who served three terms as Prime Minister of Italy, from 1994 to 1995, 2001 to 2006, and 2008 to 2011. Berlusconi is also the...
and his Forza Italia
Forza Italia
Forza Italia was a liberal-conservative, Christian democratic, and liberal political party in Italy, with a large social democratic minority, that was led by Silvio Berlusconi, four times Prime Minister of Italy....
party, and eventually into part of his governments. The party's part in the 1994 government
Berlusconi I Cabinet
The Berlusconi I Cabinet was the cabinet of the government of Italy from 10 May 1994 to January 17, 1995.It was composed of 26 ministers and 38 under-secretaries, for a total of 64 members.Composition of the government:...
met strong criticism from several European politicians, but did not manifest itself in any diplomatic implications. In just a few years, Fini had turned the MSI from a position of stagnation to one of participation in a government coalition. Although long-term and other short-term factors were part of the new fortunes for the party, it could arguably hardly have happened without the effects of the Tangentopoli scandals.
Ideology
The MSI's political program was always vague, but its themes stressed traditional social values, law and orderLaw and order (politics)
In politics, law and order refers to demands for a strict criminal justice system, especially in relation to violent and property crime, through harsher criminal penalties...
, and hostility towards social minorities and civil liberties. It advocated a centralised state with a presidential form of government, and no devolution of powers to regions. The party pursued a dualistic policy, in which it combined anti-systemic discourse with a practical policy of electoral cooperation with the mainstream right. Although it was for a long time preoccupied with the debate of fascism and anti-fascism, the party distanced itself from this in the early 1990s to rather focus on contemporary Italian issues. While both wings of the party agreed after the 1950s that fascism was dead, they nevertheless saw some good things in fascism which they wanted to reinstitute. When the party transformed itself into the AN, it outspokenly rejected fascism, as well as "any kind of totalitarianism and racism." In contrast to other far-right parties in Europe which increased their power in the late 1980s, the MSI chose to not campaign against immigration.
Internal factions
The MSI included a large variety of currents, which ranged from republicans to monarchists, Catholics to anti-clericals, conservative capitalists to radical anticapitalists, and revolutionaries to corporatists. The party was mainly divided between the adherents of what Renzo De FeliceRenzo De Felice
Renzo De Felice was an Italian historian, who specialized in the Fascist era.-Biography:He was born in Rieti and studied under Federico Chabod and Delio Cantimori at the University of Naples. During his time as student, De Felice was a member of the Italian Communist Party...
called the "fascism-movement" and the "fascism-regime", roughly also corresponding to the party's "northern" and "southern" factions. The former "leftist"-tendency was more militant and radical, and claimed heritage from the socialistic and anti-bourgeois "republican" fascism of the Italian Social Republic and pre-1922 fascism. The latter drew more from the mainstream clerical, conservative, authoritarian, and bourgeois fascist tendency that prevailed after the stabilisation of the fascist regime.
Most of the party's initial leaders were northern radicals, but most of its support was from voters in the South. In the North, the party elite to a large extent consisted of highly ideological veterans from the civil war. As the Italian Social Republic (RSI) had not existed in the South, and there thus had been no civil war, the southern MSI-supporters and notables were by contrast largely moderate-conservatives, less interested in ideology. When the conservatives gained power of the party in the 1950s, they steered it more towards the traditional clerical and monarchist right-wing.
Foreign policy
The MSI took a strongly nationalistic approach in foreign policy, but was initially divided between "third force" and pro-NATO groups. It abstained when the parliament voted on Italy's admission into NATO in 1949, but later expressed support for NATO and the European CommunityEuropean Economic Community
The European Economic Community The European Economic Community (EEC) The European Economic Community (EEC) (also known as the Common Market in the English-speaking world, renamed the European Community (EC) in 1993The information in this article primarily covers the EEC's time as an independent...
. The party supported Italy's inclusion in the European Monetary System
European Monetary System
There are three stages of monetary cooperation in the European Union.-Background:European currency exchange rate stability has been one of the most important objectives of European policy makers at least since the Second World War....
in 1979, as well as the installation of American cruise missiles in Sicily in 1983.
International affiliation
From the end of the war to the late 1980s, the MSI was the chief reference point for the European far-right. By the initiative of the MSI, the European Social MovementEuropean Social Movement
The European Social Movement was a neo-fascist Europe-wide alliance set up in 1951 to promote Pan-European nationalism.The ESM had its origins in the emergence of the Italian Social Movement , which established contacts with like-minded smaller groups in Europe during the late 1940s, setting up...
was established after conferences in Rome in 1950 and Malmö
Malmö
Malmö , in the southernmost province of Scania, is the third most populous city in Sweden, after Stockholm and Gothenburg.Malmö is the seat of Malmö Municipality and the capital of Skåne County...
, Sweden, in 1951. The conference in Malmö was attended by around one hundred delegates from French, British, German, Austrian, Italian, Spanish, Hungarian, and Swedish neo-fascist groups, with some notable figures including Maurice Bardèche
Maurice Bardèche
Maurice Bardèche was a French essayist, literary and art critic, journalist, and one of the leading exponents of Neo-Fascism in post-World War II Europe...
, Karl-Heinz Priester
Karl-Heinz Priester
Karl-Heinz Priester was a German far right political activist. Although he played only a minor role in Nazi Germany he became a leading figure on the extreme right in Europe after the Second World War.-Under the Nazis:...
, Oswald Mosley
Oswald Mosley
Sir Oswald Ernald Mosley, 6th Baronet, of Ancoats, was an English politician, known principally as the founder of the British Union of Fascists...
, and Per Engdahl
Per Engdahl
Per Claes Sven Edvard Engdahl was a leading Swedish far right politician. He was the leader of Sveriges Fascistiska Kamporganisation, SFKO during the 1920's.-Career:...
. The MSI was also part of the New European Order
New European Order
The New European Order was a neo-fascist Europe-wide alliance set up in 1951 to promote Pan-European nationalism. It was a more radical splinter-group of the European Social Movement....
, together with, among others, the Falange
Falange
The Spanish Phalanx of the Assemblies of the National Syndicalist Offensive , known simply as the Falange, is the name assigned to several political movements and parties dating from the 1930s, most particularly the original fascist movement in Spain. The word means phalanx formation in Spanish....
and the Socialist Reich Party
Socialist Reich Party
The Socialist Reich Party of Germany was a West German far-right political party founded in the aftermath of the World War II in 1949 as an openly Nazi orientated split-off from the national conservative German Right Party...
. Due to the MSI's support for continued Italian control of South Tyrol
South Tyrol
South Tyrol , also known by its Italian name Alto Adige, is an autonomous province in northern Italy. It is one of the two autonomous provinces that make up the autonomous region of Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol. The province has an area of and a total population of more than 500,000 inhabitants...
, German-speaking delegates eventually left the NEO. Growing divisions and external competition left both groups largely moribund by 1957. At a conference in Venice
Venice
Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...
in 1962, the National Party of Europe
National Party of Europe
The National Party of Europe was an initiative undertaken by a number of political parties in Europe during the 1960s to help increase cross-border co-operation and work towards European unity....
was formed by the MSI, the Union Movement
Union Movement
The Union Movement was a right-wing political party founded in Britain by Oswald Mosley. Where Mosley had previously been associated with a peculiarly British form of fascism, the Union Movement attempted to redefine the concept by stressing the importance of developing a European nationalism...
, the Deutsche Reichspartei
Deutsche Reichspartei
For the party that existed in Imperial Germany, see Free Conservative Party.The Deutsche Reichspartei was a nationalist political party in West Germany...
, Jeune Europe
Jeune Europe
Jeune Europe was an Europeanist movement formed by Jean Thiriart in Belgium. Emile Lecerf, a later editor of the Nouvel Europe Magazine, was one of Thiriart's associates....
, and the Mouvement d'Action Civique
Mouvement d'Action Civique
Mouvement d’Action Civique was a minor far right political movement in Belgium during the 1960s.The origins of the MAC lay in the 1960 independence of the Belgian Congo and the resulting Congo Crisis which saw the vast majority of white colonials, who were largely French-speaking, return to Belgium...
. The group was effectively defunct by 1966.
In response to the development of "eurocommunism
Eurocommunism
Eurocommunism was a trend in the 1970s and 1980s within various Western European communist parties to develop a theory and practice of social transformation that was more relevant in a Western European democracy and less aligned to the influence or control of the Communist Party of the Soviet...
" in the mid-1970s, Almirante initiated the first conference of a "Euro-Right" in Rome in 1978. The meeting included the francoist New Force, France's Party of New Forces (PFN), and parties from Belgium, Portugal, and Greece. The parties were unable to gather enough support to establish a group in the European Parliament
European Parliament
The European Parliament is the directly elected parliamentary institution of the European Union . Together with the Council of the European Union and the Commission, it exercises the legislative function of the EU and it has been described as one of the most powerful legislatures in the world...
following the 1979 European election
European Parliament election, 1979 (Italy)
The first elections for the European Parliament in Italy were held on 10 June 1979.A week before Italy had voted for its general election: the lack of matching between the two elections caused much controversy for wasting public money.-Electoral system:...
. After the 1984 European election
European Parliament election, 1984 (Italy)
The second elections for the European Parliament in Italy were held on 17 June 1984.The election took place just a week after the death of Communist leader Enrico Berlinguer: this fact hugely influenced the vote, producing an historical result....
, the MSI was finally able to establish a European Right
European Right (1984–1989)
The Group of the European Right was a political group of far-right orientation that operated in the European Parliament between 1984 and 1989.-History:...
group, together with the French National Front (which had emerged victorious from its rivalry with the PFN) and the Greek National Political Union
National Political Union
The National Political Union, better known as EPEN was a Greek far-right political party. The party was founded on January 30, 1984 by jailed former junta leader Georgios Papadopoulos. It participated in the 1985 general election...
. However, following the 1989 European election
European Parliament election, 1989 (Italy)
The third elections for the European Parliament in Italy were held on 18 June 1989.The election was paired with a non-binding referendum about the devolution of powers to the European Economic Community.-Electoral system:...
, the MSI refused to join the new European Right
European Right (1989–1994)
The Technical Group of the European Right was a Far-Right political group with seats in the European Parliament between 1989 and 1994.-History:Following the 1989 elections, the previous far-right Group lost its Ulster Unionist and Greek EPEN MEPs...
group over the territorial dispute of South Tyrol, due to the arrival of The Republicans, a German party which supported South Tyrol claims made by the Freedom Party of South Tyrol
Freedom Party of South Tyrol
The Freedom Party of South Tyrol was a regionalist liberal-conservative and national-liberal political party active in South Tyrol.It was launched in 1988 as the continuation of the Party of Independents by Gerold Meraner. In the 1988 provincial election FPS took 1.4% and got Meraner elected to...
. Neither The Republicans, nor the Belgian Vlaams Blok
Vlaams Blok
The Vlaams Blok was a Belgian far-right and secessionist political party with an anti-immigration platform. Its ideologies embraced Flemish nationalism, calling for the independence of Flanders. From its creation in 1978, it was the most notable militant right wing of the Flemish movement. Vlaams...
party, wanted to form a group with the MSI over this issue. As the MSI transformed itself into AN, it distanced itself from increasingly powerful European far-right parties such as France's National Front and the Freedom Party of Austria
Freedom Party of Austria
The Freedom Party of Austria is a political party in Austria. Ideologically, the party is a direct descendant of the German national liberal camp, which dates back to the 1848 revolutions. The FPÖ itself was founded in 1956 as the successor to the short-lived Federation of Independents , which had...
.
Popular support
| Year | Vote # | Vote % | Seats |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1948 Italian general election, 1948 The Italian elections of 1948 were the second democratic elections with universal suffrage ever held in Italy, taking place after the 1946 elections to the Constituent Assembly, responsible for drawing up a new Italian Constitution... |
526,882 | 2.0% | 6 |
| 1953 Italian general election, 1953 The Italian elections of 1953 were held on June 7. They were a test for leading centrist coalition ruled by Prime Minister Alcide De Gasperi. Italian electors chose the second Parliament of the Italian Republic.-The Scam Law:... |
1,582,567 | 5.8% | 29 |
| 1958 Italian general election, 1958 The Italian elections of 1958 were held on May 25, and selected the third Parliament of the Italian Republic. The number of MPs to be elected was calculated upon the population's size for the last time.-Electoral system:... |
1,407,913 | 4.8% | 24 |
| 1963 Italian general election, 1963 The Italian elections of 1963 were held on April 28. The fourth Parliament of republican Italy was selected.It was the first election with a fixed number of MPs to be elected, as decided by the second Constitutional Reform in February 1963... |
1,570,282 | 5.1% | 27 |
| 1968 Italian general election, 1968 The Italian elections of 1968 were held on May 19. The fifth Parliament of republican Italy was selected, while voters were 35,566,681 for the Chamber of Deputies and 33,003,249 for the Italian Senate, with an increment of some 3,000,000 in both elections from 1963.Democrazia Cristiana remained... |
1,414,036 | 4.5% | 24 |
| 1972 Italian general election, 1972 The Italian elections of 1972 were held on May 7. The sixth Parliament of republican Italy was selected, while voters were 37,049,654 for the Chamber of Deputies and 34,524,108 for the Senate.... |
2,896,762 | 8.7% | 56 |
| 1976 Italian general election, 1976 The Italian elections of 1976 were held on June 20. The seventh Parliament of republican Italy was selected. These were the first elections where 18-year-old boys and girls were allowed to vote.... |
2,238,339 | 6.1% | 35 |
| 1979 Italian general election, 1979 The Italian election of 1979 was held on June 3. The eighth Parliament of republican Italy was selected. This election was called just a week before the European vote: the lack of matching between the two elections caused much controversy for wasting public money.Terroristic attacks by the Red... |
1,930,639 | 5.3% | 30 |
| 1983 Italian general election, 1983 The Italian election of 1983 was held on June 26. The ninth Parliament of republican Italy was selected.The Pentaparty formula, the governative alliance between five centrist parties, caused unexpected problems to the Christian Democracy. The alliance was fixed and universal, extended both to the... |
2,511,487 | 6.8% | 42 |
| 1987 Italian general election, 1987 The Italian election of 1987 was held on June 14. Italian citizens chose the tenth Parliament of the Italian Republic.This election marked the final inversion of the trend of the entire republican history of Italy: for the first time, the distance between the Christian Democrats and the Communists... |
2,282,256 | 5.9% | 35 |
| 1992 Italian general election, 1992 The Italian general elections of 1992 were held on the 5 April 1992.The 1992 elections were the first without the traditionally second most important political force in Italy, the Italian Communist Party , which had been disbanded in 1991... |
2,107,272 | 5.4% | 34 |
The electoral support for the MSI fluctuated around 5 percent, with its supporting peaking in 1972 at almost 9 percent. The party's popular support came mostly from the southern underclass and the rural oligarchy
Oligarchy
Oligarchy is a form of power structure in which power effectively rests with an elite class distinguished by royalty, wealth, family ties, commercial, and/or military legitimacy...
until the 1960s, and later from the urban middle class
Middle class
The middle class is any class of people in the middle of a societal hierarchy. In Weberian socio-economic terms, the middle class is the broad group of people in contemporary society who fall socio-economically between the working class and upper class....
es, especially in Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
, Naples
Naples
Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...
, Bari
Bari
Bari is the capital city of the province of Bari and of the Apulia region, on the Adriatic Sea, in Italy. It is the second most important economic centre of mainland Southern Italy after Naples, and is well known as a port and university city, as well as the city of Saint Nicholas...
, and the other cities of the Centre-South. Its supporters consisted demographically of old fascists, lower-middle-class shopkeepers, and artisans, as well as a number of bureaucrats, police
Police
The police is a personification of the state designated to put in practice the enforced law, protect property and reduce civil disorder in civilian matters. Their powers include the legitimized use of force...
, and military
Military
A military is an organization authorized by its greater society to use lethal force, usually including use of weapons, in defending its country by combating actual or perceived threats. The military may have additional functions of use to its greater society, such as advancing a political agenda e.g...
. Reasons to vote for the MSI included protest votes, nostalgia, and support for traditional values, as well as southern resentment of the North
Northern Italy
Northern Italy is a wide cultural, historical and geographical definition, without any administrative usage, used to indicate the northern part of the Italian state, also referred as Settentrione or Alta Italia...
. As the old fascist veterans started to fade away, the party in turn gained support from alienated youth groups.
Although most of the party's initial leaders were radicals from the North, the party's electoral base was in the South. In its first election, almost 70 percent of the party's votes came from regions south of Rome, and all of its elected parliamentary representatives came from southern constituencies. In the 1952 local elections, the MSI–Monarchist alliance won 11.8% of the votes in the South. In 1972, when the MSI was at its peak, it won 14.8% in Lazio (17.4% in Rome and 21.0% in Latina
Latina
Latina is the feminine form of the term Latino.Latina may also refer to:*Province of Latina, a province in Latium , Italy**Latina, Lazio, the capital of the province of Latina**Latina Nuclear Power Plant*Latina , a district of Madrid...
), 16.7% in Campania
Campania
Campania is a region in southern Italy. The region has a population of around 5.8 million people, making it the second-most-populous region of Italy; its total area of 13,590 km² makes it the most densely populated region in the country...
(26.3% in Naples and 22.2% in Salerno
Salerno
Salerno is a city and comune in Campania and is the capital of the province of the same name. It is located on the Gulf of Salerno on the Tyrrhenian Sea....
), 12.5% in Apulia
Apulia
Apulia is a region in Southern Italy bordering the Adriatic Sea in the east, the Ionian Sea to the southeast, and the Strait of Òtranto and Gulf of Taranto in the south. Its most southern portion, known as Salento peninsula, forms a high heel on the "boot" of Italy. The region comprises , and...
(21.0% in Lecce
Lecce
Lecce is a historic city of 95,200 inhabitants in southern Italy, the capital of the province of Lecce, the second province in the region by population, as well as one of the most important cities of Puglia...
, 18.8% in Bari, and 18.4% in Foggia
Foggia
Foggia is a city and comune of Apulia, Italy, capital of the province of Foggia. Foggia is the main city of a plain called Tavoliere, also known as the "granary of Italy".-History:...
), 12.2% in Calabria
Calabria
Calabria , in antiquity known as Bruttium, is a region in southern Italy, south of Naples, located at the "toe" of the Italian Peninsula. The capital city of Calabria is Catanzaro....
(36.3% in Reggio Calabria
Reggio Calabria
Reggio di Calabria , commonly known as Reggio Calabria or Reggio, is the biggest city and the most populated comune of Calabria, southern Italy, and is the capital of the Province of Reggio Calabria and seat of the Council of Calabrian government.Reggio is located on the "toe" of the Italian...
), 15.9% in Sicily
Sicily
Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...
(30.6% in Catania
Catania
Catania is an Italian city on the east coast of Sicily facing the Ionian Sea, between Messina and Syracuse. It is the capital of the homonymous province, and with 298,957 inhabitants it is the second-largest city in Sicily and the tenth in Italy.Catania is known to have a seismic history and...
, 24.4% in Messina, and 20.7% in Siracusa) and 11.3% in Sardinia
Sardinia
Sardinia is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea . It is an autonomous region of Italy, and the nearest land masses are the French island of Corsica, the Italian Peninsula, Sicily, Tunisia and the Spanish Balearic Islands.The name Sardinia is from the pre-Roman noun *sard[],...
(16.0% in Cagliari
Cagliari
Cagliari is the capital of the island of Sardinia, a region of Italy. Cagliari's Sardinian name Casteddu literally means castle. It has about 156,000 inhabitants, or about 480,000 including the outlying townships : Elmas, Assemini, Capoterra, Selargius, Sestu, Monserrato, Quartucciu, Quartu...
).
| Year | Vote # | Vote % | Seats |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1979 European Parliament election, 1979 (Italy) The first elections for the European Parliament in Italy were held on 10 June 1979.A week before Italy had voted for its general election: the lack of matching between the two elections caused much controversy for wasting public money.-Electoral system:... |
1,909,055 | 5.5% | 4 |
| 1984 European Parliament election, 1984 (Italy) The second elections for the European Parliament in Italy were held on 17 June 1984.The election took place just a week after the death of Communist leader Enrico Berlinguer: this fact hugely influenced the vote, producing an historical result.... |
2,274,556 | 6.5% | 5 |
| 1989 European Parliament election, 1989 (Italy) The third elections for the European Parliament in Italy were held on 18 June 1989.The election was paired with a non-binding referendum about the devolution of powers to the European Economic Community.-Electoral system:... |
1,918,650 | 5.5% | 4 |
By the beginning of the 1990s the MSI had strengthened its position, especially in Lazio, and, when the Christian Democrats disbanded in 1993–94, the MSI was able to attract many Christian Democratic voters in Central
Central Italy
Central Italy is one of the five official statistical regions of Italy used by the National Institute of Statistics , a first level NUTS region and a European Parliament constituency...
and Southern Italy, as well as many formerly Socialist
Italian Socialist Party
The Italian Socialist Party was a socialist and later social-democratic political party in Italy founded in Genoa in 1892.Once the dominant leftist party in Italy, it was eclipsed in status by the Italian Communist Party following World War II...
votes, especially in Friuli-Venezia Giulia
Friuli-Venezia Giulia
Friuli–Venezia Giulia is one of the twenty regions of Italy, and one of five autonomous regions with special statute. The capital is Trieste. It has an area of 7,858 km² and about 1.2 million inhabitants. A natural opening to the sea for many Central European countries, the region is...
. In some places, such as Lazio, the MSI became the new dominant political force. At a time when Lega Nord was booming in the North, several voters south of the Po River
Po River
The Po |Ligurian]]: Bodincus or Bodencus) is a river that flows either or – considering the length of the Maira, a right bank tributary – eastward across northern Italy, from a spring seeping from a stony hillside at Pian del Re, a flat place at the head of the Val Po under the northwest face...
liked the MSI's appeals to Italian identity and unity. In the 1996 general election
Italian general election, 1996
An early national general election was held in Italy on 21 April, 1996 to elect members of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate of the Republic...
, the first after the transformation of the MSI into AN, the Italian right-wing won its best result ever: 15.7% nationally, 28.9% in Lazio (where, with 31.3%, AN was the largest party in Rome), 19.8% in Umbria
Umbria
Umbria is a region of modern central Italy. It is one of the smallest Italian regions and the only peninsular region that is landlocked.Its capital is Perugia.Assisi and Norcia are historical towns associated with St. Francis of Assisi, and St...
, 21.1% in Abruzzo
Abruzzo
Abruzzo is a region in Italy, its western border lying less than due east of Rome. Abruzzo borders the region of Marche to the north, Lazio to the west and south-west, Molise to the south-east, and the Adriatic Sea to the east...
, 20.0% in Campania, 23.5% in Basilicata
Basilicata
Basilicata , also known as Lucania, is a region in the south of Italy, bordering on Campania to the west, Apulia to the north and east, and Calabria to the south, having one short southwestern coastline on the Tyrrhenian Sea between Campania in the northwest and Calabria in the southwest, and a...
, 22.1% in Apulia, 20.9% in Calabria, and 20.3% in Sardinia.
Secretary (party leader)
- Giorgio AlmiranteGiorgio AlmiranteGiorgio Almirante was an Italian politician, the founder and leader of the Italian Social Movement until his retirement in 1987.-Early life:...
(1946–1950) - Augusto De MarsanichAugusto De MarsanichAugusto De Marsanich was an Italian National Fascist Party politician and the second leader of the Italian Social Movement ....
(1950–1954) - Arturo MicheliniArturo MicheliniArturo Michelini was an Italian politician and Secretary of the Italian Social Movement.Michelini was born in Florence. An accountant by profession, he was a lower to middle-ranking figure in the National Fascist Party, rising to become secretary of the party in Rome...
(1954–1969) - Giorgio Almirante (1969–1987)
- Gianfranco FiniGianfranco FiniGianfranco Fini is an Italian politician, President of the Italian Chamber of Deputies, leader of the center-right Future and Freedom party, and the former leader of the conservative National Alliance and the post-fascist Italian Social Movement...
(1987–1990) - Pino RautiPino RautiGiuseppe Umberto "Pino" Rauti is an Italian politician who has been a leading figure on the far right for many years...
(1990–1991) - Gianfranco Fini (1991–1995)
Leader in the Chamber of Deputies
- Giorgio AlmiranteGiorgio AlmiranteGiorgio Almirante was an Italian politician, the founder and leader of the Italian Social Movement until his retirement in 1987.-Early life:...
(1946–1953) - Giovanni Roberti (1953–1968)
- Giorgio Almirante (1968–1969)
- Ernesto De Marzio (1969–1976)
- Giorgio Almirante (1977)
- Alfredo Pazzaglia (1977–1990)
- Francesco Servello (1990–1992)
- Giuseppe Tatarella (1992–1994)