Italian Social Movement, National Alliance, People of Freedom: from neo-fascism to post-fascism in Italy

Abstract

This article discusses the evolution of the Italian extreme right after the Second World War, with an emphasis on its leading political party, the Movimento Sociale Italiano (Italian Social Movement), its successor, Alleanza Nazionale (National Alliance — 1995-2009), and the latest strategies arising from its merger with the party of Silvio Berlusconi (2009). An outline of the Party’s history is coupled with an analysis of the changes in its political culture. We seek to account for how and why an anti-establishment party — the longest-lived party in Italian politics — renounced its radicalism in favor of popular liberalism values.