Alleanza Nazionale

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Alleanza Nazionale
Party logo
Party executive Gianfranco Fini (1995–2008)
Ignazio La Russa (2008–2009) (presidente)
founding January 27, 1995 (emerged from: Movimento Sociale Italiano )
resolution March 22, 2009 (incorporated into: Il Popolo della Libertà )
ideology national conservative
European party AEN (2002-2009)
EP Group UEN (1999-2009)
MPs
109/630
(1994)
Senators
48/315
(1994)
MEPs
11/87
(1994)
Headquarters ItalyItaly Rome ,
Via della Scrofa 43
Party newspaper Secolo d'Italia

The Alleanza Nazionale ( AN ; German  National Alliance ) was a national conservative party in Italy . It emerged from the neo-fascist Movimento Sociale Italiano in 1995 and merged with the center-right collecting party Popolo della Libertà in 2009 . In national elections, it received between 12 and 16 percent of the vote and was the third and fourth strongest force.

Emergence

From the merger with the Partito Democratico Italiano di Unità Monarchica (PDIUM) in 1972, the Movimento Sociale Italiano (MSI) included, on the one hand, explicitly old and neo-fascist forces in the tradition of the Italian Social Republic (RSI), on the other hand, conservative monarchists. It was the fourth strongest force in the 1970s and 80s, with votes ranging between 5 and 9 percent. The other parties, however, regarded them as outside the "constitutional arc " (arco costituzionale) and refused to cooperate.

Gianfranco Fini, Chairman of the AN from its foundation until 2008

Gianfranco Fini , who was already 1987–1990 and again from 1991 "national secretary" (ie chairman) of the MSI, tried to achieve a somewhat more moderate appearance in order to make the party eligible for election to broader sections of the population. On the other hand, Prime Minister Bettino Craxi loosened the isolation of the MSI from the socialists by inviting Fini in 1987 to official talks between party leaders about constitutional reform. Fini and the MSI used the Tangentopoli corruption scandal that came to light in 1992, which resulted in a massive loss of trust among the population in the previous governing parties. In the mayoral election in Rome in 1993 Fini came into the runoff, in which he was defeated with 46.9% of the vote, which, however, was a record result for a candidate of the MSI.

At the suggestion of the MP Giuseppe Tatarella and the conservative-monarchist politics professor Domenico Fisichella , the MSI entered the parliamentary elections in 1994 under the list name Alleanza Nazionale . She also formed an electoral alliance with non-fascist center-right parties, namely the newly founded Forza Italia by Silvio Berlusconi ( Polo del Buon Governo ) . With 13.5% of the vote, MSI / Alleanza Nazionale was the third strongest party (two years earlier it was only 5.4%). In some provinces of central and southern Italy it even became the strongest force. As part of the center-right Berlusconi I cabinet , she subsequently took part in government for the first time.

The change of the party had its external climax at the Fiuggi party congress from January 25 to 29, 1995 when it was reorganized into the Alleanza Nazionale . The reorganization was initially just a staged change of packaging: the party name, symbols and rhetoric were exchanged without shaking the core of the ideology. The old party symbol, the flame with the colors of the Italian flag and the signature MSI, was not completely discarded, it was incorporated into the new party logo. In addition, 95 percent of the AN MPs were formerly part of the MSI group. This external change was followed by a gradual adjustment of the personnel structure, the appearance and the programmatic statements. In the further course of the 1990s, it then transformed into a right-wing conservative party.

Party leader Gianfranco Fini was particularly committed to the change of direction of Fiuggi (Italian svolta di Fiuggi ). He repeatedly protested the departure from fascist totalitarianism and racism. He condemned the racial laws against the Jews particularly sharply and, on the occasion of a visit to Israel, described fascism with reference to the racial laws and the Holocaust as "part of the epoch of absolute evil".

ideology

The party campaigned in particular for the family , for the preservation of Italian identity, for the fight against crime and illegal immigration , for the social market economy (whereby it emphasizes the social more). Another important point in the party's agenda was the preservation of national unity, which led to conflicts with the Lega Nord.

Spin-offs

Alessandra Mussolini left the AN in 2003

The change from a neo-fascist to a conservative party led to some splits:

Election results

Distribution of the share of AN votes by provinces (parliamentary election 2001)

The collapse of the Democrazia Cristiana made it possible for the Alleanza Nazionale to win numerous votes, especially in central and southern Italy.

Despite numerous splits, it won over 10% of the vote in all national elections. It achieved its best election result in 1996 when the party received 15.7% of the vote. In the Italian parliamentary elections on April 9 and 10, 2006 , the AN received 12.3%.

For the 1999 European elections , the AN entered into an electoral alliance with the liberal Patto Segni under the name Elefantino ("The Little Elephant") - an allusion to the logo of the Republican Party of the USA, which was the model of this center-right alliance. The alliance got 10.3% of the vote, which was seen as a disappointment (in 1994 the AN had received 12.5% ​​and the Patto Segni 3.3%). The AN's European parliamentarians formed the national-conservative parliamentary group Union for Europe of Nations (UEN) with those of the French RPF , the Irish Fianna Fáil and smaller parties . In the 2004 European elections , the AN increased to 11.5%. With nine MEPs, the AN was then the strongest single party in the UEN group and, with Cristiana Muscardini, one of the two group leaders. Muscardini was also general secretary of the European party Alliance for Europe of Nations (AEN), of which the AN was a founding member.

The alliance was also successful at the local level, particularly in the center and south of the country. Gianni Alemanno , who was mayor of Rome from 2008-2013, was a member of the AN until it was dissolved.

The electorate was disproportionately male (in the parliamentary elections in 1994 64% of the AN voters were men), more at home in small and medium-sized cities (less than 100,000 inhabitants). The AN was particularly well represented among the self-employed, the unemployed and young voters.

Government participation

In the first and second government (1994-95) Berlusconi (2001-06) was the AN important coalition partner , and together with various parties, including Forza Italia , Lega Nord and Christian Democratic Center and Unione dei Democratici Cristiani e di Centro the center -right party alliance Casa delle Libertà . In the Berlusconi I cabinet , the AN provided a deputy prime minister - Giuseppe Tatarella - and five ministers (agriculture, transport, post, culture and the environment). In order to distance themselves from the fascist past, these were not top representatives of the previous MSI, but came from the second row or had only joined the party in the course of the change in 1994/95. Post Minister Tatarella, however, used his office to honor the fascist philosopher Giovanni Gentile with a stamp.

Gianfranco Fini was Deputy Prime Minister 2001-06 and Foreign Minister of Italy 2004-06 in the Berlusconi II and III cabinets . In addition, the AN provided the ministers for agriculture, the environment, health and communication.

After April 2008, the AN was again in government responsibility as part of the PDL parliamentary group ( Berlusconi IV cabinet ). This time the Defense Minister Ignazio La Russa and the Transport Minister Altero Matteoli came from the ranks of the AN. In addition, Gianfranco Fini held the office of President of the Chamber of Deputies from 2008-2013, the third highest in the state.

Dissolution and succession

Giorgia Meloni, 2004–09 chairwoman of the AN youth organization Azione Giovane

The two main parties of the center-left merged in 2007 to form the Partito Democratico . Following this example, Berlusconi suggested that the center-right should also unite into a single party. However, there was initially considerable resistance, including from the AN. In the parliamentary elections on April 13 and 14, 2008 , AN and Forza Italia came up with a joint list - called Popolo della Libertà (PdL). Their representatives then each formed a joint parliamentary group in the Senate and the House of Representatives. However, the parties involved persisted for a transitional period. On March 22, 2009, the Alleanza Nazionale decided to dissolve and a week later Popolo della Libertà was founded as a unified party.

Some of the former AN members, including the long-time chairman Fini, left the PdL again in 2010 and founded the liberal-conservative party Futuro e Libertà per l'Italia (FLI). With the Christian Democratic Unione di Centro and smaller parties from the political center, this attempted to form a “third pole” in the Italian party landscape - between the center-left and center-right bloc. Since the 2013 parliamentary election , in which it received only 0.5% of the vote, the FLI has been politically insignificant.

Another group of former AN members, around Ignazio La Russa and Giorgia Meloni , left the PdL in December 2012 and founded the national conservative and right-wing populist party Fratelli d'Italia (FdI). The Fondazione Alleanza Nazionale , which manages the assets of the dissolved party, decided in December 2013 to grant the FdI the rights to the AN's name and logo. This then renamed itself Fratelli d'Italia - Alleanza Nazionale and included the green-white-red flame (fiamma tricolore) , once a symbol of MSI and AN, in its logo. It can therefore be regarded as the de facto successor to the AN.

See also

literature

  • Markus K. Grimm: The problematic reinvention of the Italian right. The Alleanza Nazionale and its way to the center. Springer VS, Wiesbaden 2016, ISBN 978-3-658-12565-3 .
  • Sebastian Mahner: From the right wing to the political center? The Alleanza Nazionale ten years after its foundation in a European comparison (= political science . Vol. 121). Lit, Münster 2005, ISBN 3-8258-8600-X .
  • Petra Reiter-Mayer: The establishment of the Alleanza Nazionale in the political system of Italy: A socially acceptable right or a well-known in new clothes? (= Politica series of publications . Vol. 66). Dr. Kovac Verlag, Hamburg 2006, ISBN 3-8300-2401-0 .
  • Sandra Riccio: Italy: The Alleanza Nazionale . In: Helga Amesberger , Brigitte Halbmayr (ed.): Right-wing extremist parties - a possible home for women? . Leske and Budrich, Opladen 2002, ISBN 3-8100-3366-9 , p. 113 ff.
  • Marco Tarchi: Recalcitrant Allies. The Conflicting Foreign Policy Agenda of the Alleanza Nationale and the Lega Nord . In: Christina Schiori Lang (Ed.): Europe for the Europeans: The Foreign and Security Policy of the Populist Radical Right . Ashgate Publishing, Burlington et al. a. 2007, ISBN 978-0-7546-4851-2 , pp. 187 ff.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Markus K. Grimm: The problematic reinvention of the Italian right. The Alleanza Nazionale and its way to the center. Springer VS, Wiesbaden 2016, pp. 24, 112.
  2. ↑ Markus K. Grimm: The problematic reinvention of the Italian right. The Alleanza Nazionale and its way to the center. Springer VS, Wiesbaden 2016, pp. 252-253.
  3. ↑ Markus K. Grimm: The problematic reinvention of the Italian right. The Alleanza Nazionale and its way to the center. Springer VS, Wiesbaden 2016, pp. 250-251.
  4. ^ Nicola Rao: La fiamma e la celtica. Sperling & Kupfer, Milan 2006, p. 310.
  5. ↑ a b Markus K. Grimm: The problematic reinvention of the Italian right. The Alleanza Nazionale and its way to the center. Springer VS, Wiesbaden 2016, p. 322.
  6. ↑ Markus K. Grimm: The problematic reinvention of the Italian right. The Alleanza Nazionale and its way to the center. Springer VS, Wiesbaden 2016, p. 158.
  7. ^ Christian Christians : Italy's modernization of the law. Berlusconi, Bossi, Fini or the smashing of the welfare state . Karl Dietz Verlag , Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-320-02028-5 , p. 104ff.
  8. ^ Richard Stöss , Melanie Haas , Oskar Niedermayer : Party systems in Western Europe: stability and change . In: Oskar Niedermayer, Richard Stöss, Melanie Haas (eds.): The party systems of Western Europe . VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften , 2006, ISBN 978-3-531-14111-4 , p. 30.
  9. ↑ Fini: Our turning point has not yet taken place , in: Corriere della Sera , January 26, 1995.
  10. ↑ Fini in Israele "Il fascismo fu parte del male assoluto" , in: La Repubblica , November 24, 2003.
  11. ↑ Markus K. Grimm: The problematic reinvention of the Italian right. The Alleanza Nazionale and its way to the center. Springer VS, Wiesbaden 2016, p. 284.
  12. ↑ Markus K. Grimm: The problematic reinvention of the Italian right. The Alleanza Nazionale and its way to the center. Springer VS, Wiesbaden 2016, p. 287.
  13. ↑ Markus K. Grimm: The problematic reinvention of the Italian right. The Alleanza Nazionale and its way to the center. Springer VS, Wiesbaden 2016, p. 271.
  14. ↑ Politiche 1996 Risultati - Politica OnLine ( Memento of May 24, 2006 in the Internet Archive )
  15. ↑ Markus K. Grimm: The problematic reinvention of the Italian right. The Alleanza Nazionale and its way to the center. Springer VS, Wiesbaden 2016, p. 269.
  16. ↑ Markus K. Grimm: The problematic reinvention of the Italian right. The Alleanza Nazionale and its way to the center. Springer VS, Wiesbaden 2016, pp. 128–130.
  17. ↑ Markus K. Grimm: The problematic reinvention of the Italian right. The Alleanza Nazionale and its way to the center. Springer VS, Wiesbaden 2016, pp. 131–132.