National Alliance (Italy)

National Alliance Alleanza Nazionale
Former leaders	Gianfranco Fini, Ignazio La Russa, Giuseppe Tatarella, Domenico Fisichella
Founded	1995-01-27
Dissolved	2009-03-22
Merged into	The People of Freedom
Newspaper	Il Secolo d'Italia
Membership  (2004)	250,000[1]
Ideology	Conservatism,[2][3][4] National conservatism, Liberal conservatism, Christian democracy
International affiliation	None
European affiliation	Alliance for Europe of the Nations
European Parliament Group	Union for Europe of the Nations
Politics of Italy Political parties Elections

National Alliance (Alleanza Nazionale, AN) 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 Ignazio La Russa, who managed to merge the party into The People of Freedom (PdL). This finally happened in 2009.

History

Foundation

National Alliance was formed by Gianfranco Fini from the Italian Social Movement (MSI), the ex-neo-fascist party, which was declared dissolved in January 1995, and conservative elements of the former Christian Democracy, which had disbanded in 1994 after two years of scandals and various splits due to corruption at its highest levels, exposed by the Mani Pulite investigation, and the Italian Liberal Party, disbanded in the same year. Former MSI members were however still the bulk of the new party.

The logo followed a template very similar to the Democratic Party of the Left, with the previous logo in a small circle (as a means of legally preventing others from using it). The name was suggested by an article on the Italian newspaper Il Tempo written in 1992 by Domenico Fisichella, a prominent conservative academic. In January 1995 a party congress officially proclaimed the dissolution of MSI, the rejection of most MSI's ideological stances and the establishment of National Alliance.

Government participation

The party was part of all three House of Freedoms coalition governments led by Silvio Berlusconi. Gianfranco Fini was notably nominated Deputy Prime Minister after the 2001 general election and was Foreign Minister from November 2004 to May 2006.

When Gianfranco Fini visited Israel in late November 2003 in the function of Italian Deputy Prime Minister, he labeled the racial laws issued by the fascist regime in 1938 as "infamous", as also Giorgio Almirante, historic leader of MSI, had done before.^[5] He also referred to the Italian Social Republic as belonging to the most shameful pages of the past, and considered fascism part of an era of "absolute evil", something which was hardly acceptable to the few remaining hardliners of the party. As a result, Alessandra Mussolini, the granddaughter of the former fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, who had been at odds with the party on a number of issues for a long time, and some hardliners left the party and formed Social Action.^[4][6]

Logo of National Alliance for the 2006 general election

In occasion of the 2006 general election, AN ran within the House of Freedoms (with new allies). The centre-right lost by 24,000 votes in favor of the centre-left The Union. Individually AN received nearly 5 million votes, amounting to 12.3%. In July 2007 a group of splinters led by Francesco Storace formed The Right party, which was officially founded on 10 November. Seven MPs of AN, including Teodoro Buontempo and Daniela Santanchè, joined the new party.

The People of Freedom

In November 2007 Silvio Berlusconi announced that Forza Italia would have soon merged or transformed into the The People of Freedom (PdL) party.^[7][8][9]

After the sudden fall of Prodi II Cabinet in January 2008, the break up of The Union coalition and the subsequent political crisis which lead to a fresh general election, Berlusconi hinted that Forza Italia would have probably contested its last election and the new party would have been officially founded only after that election. In an atmosphere of reconciliation with Gianfranco Fini, Berlusconi also stated that the new party could see the participation of other parties.^[10] Finally, on 8 February, Berlusconi and Fini agreed to form a joint list under the banner of the "The People of Freedom", allied with Lega Nord.^[11] After the victory of the PdL in the 2008 general election, AN was merged into the PdL in early 2009.^[12]

Ideology

National Alliance's political program emphasized:

• traditional values, being often close to the position of the Roman Catholic Church, despite some socially liberal and secular attitudes;
• law and order, especially laws aimed at controlling immigration and implementing punishment;
• support for Israel^[6], the United States and European integration;
• prohibitionism about any kind of drugs, including marijuana.

Distinguishing itself from the MSI, the party distanced itself from Benito Mussolini and Fascism and made efforts to improve relations with Jewish groups.^[4] With most hardliners leaving the party^[4][6], it sought to present itself as a respectable conservative party and to join forces with Forza Italia in the European People's Party and, eventually, in a united party of the centre-right.

Although the party approved market economy and held favourable views on liberalizations and the privatization of state industries, however AN was to the left of Forza Italia on economic issues and sometimes supported statist policies. That is why the party was strong in Rome and Lazio, where most civil servants live. Moreover AN presents itself as a party promoting national cohesion, national identity and patriotism.

Regarding institutional reforms, the party was a long-time supporter of presidentialism and first-past-the-post, and came to support also federalism and to fully accept the alliance with Lega Nord, although the relations with that party were tense at times, especially about issues regarding national unity.

Gianfranco Fini, a modernizer who sees Nicolas Sarkozy and David Cameron as models, impressed an ambitious political line to the party, combining the pillars of conservative ideology like security, family values and patriotism with a progressive approach in other areas such as stem-cell research and supporting voting rights for legal aliens. Anyway some of these positions were not shared by many members of the party, most of whom staunchly oppose stem-cell research and artificial insemination.^[6]

Factions

National Alliance was a heterogeneous political party and within it members were divided in different factions, some of them very organized:

• Protagonist Right (Destra Protagonista), headed by Maurizio Gasparri and Ignazio La Russa, was the bigger faction and the closest to Forza Italia, due to its liberal-conservative stances.
• New Alliance (Nuova Alleanza), formerly called Right and Freedom (Destra e Libertà), headed by Altero Matteoli and Adolfo Urso, was formed by the staunchest supporters of Gianfranco Fini within the party and supported a liberal political agenda.
• Social Right (Destra Sociale), led by Gianni Alemanno, advocated a more "social" approach to economic policy and was considered at the right of the party. It had close ties with the General Labour Union.
• D-Destra, led by Francesco Storace, was the most conservative component of the party, proud of the MSI's tradition and in open opposition to Fini. Formed as a split from the Social Right, in July 2007 the group finally left AN and launched The Right.
• Christian Reformists (Cristiano Riformisti) was a minor Christian-democratic faction.

In the party there was also a group named Ethic-Religious Council, whose board members included Gaetano Rebecchini (founder, ex-DC), Riccardo Pedrizzi (president), Franco Tofoni (vice president), Luigi Gagliardi (secretary-general), Alfredo Mantovano, Antonio Mazzocchi and Riccardo Migliori. This was not a faction but an official organism within the party and expressed the official position of the party on ethical and religious matters. Sometimes the group criticized Gianfranco Fini for his liberal views on abortion, artificial insemination and stem-cell research, which led some notable ex-DC members as Publio Fiori to leave the party. Some members of the Council, such as Pedrizzi and Mantovano were described as members of an unofficial Catholic Right faction.

Popular support

The party had roughly 10-15% support across Italy, having its stongholds in Central and Southern Italy (Lazio 18.6%, Umbria 15.2%, Marche 14.3%, Abruzzo 14.3%, Puglia 13.2%, Sardinia 12.9%, Tuscany 12.6% and Campania 12.6% in the last general election), scoring badly in Lombardy (10.2%) and Sicily (10.9%), while competing in the North-East (Friuli-Venezia Giulia 15.5% and Veneto 11.3%).

The party had a good showing in the first general election to which it took part (13.5% in 1994) and reached 15.7% in 1996, when Fini tried for the first time to replace Silvio Berlusconi as leader of the centre-right. From that moment the party suffered an electoral decline, but remains the third force of Italian politics.

In the 2006 general election, the last election to which the party took party with its own list, it won 12.3% of the vote, securing 71 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 41 in the Senate. In the 2008 general election the party got 90 deputies^[13] and 48 senators^[14] elected.

The electoral results of National Alliance in the 10 most populated Regions of Italy are shown in the table below.

Leadership

• President: Gianfranco Fini (1995–2008), Ignazio La Russa (regent, 2008–2009)
  • Head of Political Secretariat: Donato Lamorte (1995–2002), Andrea Ronchi (2002–2004), Carmelo Briguglio (2002–2004), Donato Lamorte (2004–2009)
  • Spokesman: Maurizio Gasparri (1995–1997), Adolfo Urso (1997–2001), Antonio Landolfi (2001–2005), Andrea Ronchi (2005–2009)
• President of National Assembly: Domenico Fisichella (1995–2005), Marcello Perina (2005–2006), Francesco Servello (2006–2009)
• Organizational Coordinator: Giuseppe Tatarella (1995–1998), Altero Matteoli (1998–2002), Donato Lamorte (2002–2004), Italo Bocchino (2004–2005), Marco Martinelli (2005–2009)

• Party Leader at the Chamber of Deputies: Raffaele Valensise (1994–1995), Giuseppe Tatarella (1995–1998), Gustavo Selva (1998–2001), Ignazio La Russa (2001–2003), Gian Franco Anedda (2003–2004), Iganzio La Russa (2004–2008), Italo Bocchino (deputy-leader of PdL's group, 2008–2009)
• Party Leader at the Senate: Giulio Maceratini (1994–2001), Domenico Nania (2001–2006), Altero Matteoli (2006–2008), Maurizio Gasparri (leader of PdL's group, 2008–2009)
• Party Leader at the European Parliament: Cristiana Muscardini (1994–2004), Roberta Angelilli (2004–2009)

External links

• Official website
• Azione Giovani

Factions

• Protagonist Right
• New Alliance
• Social Right
• Christian Reformists

Stephen Roth Institute

• Continuity or change in the ideology of the Alleanza Nazionale
• The annual report of Anti-semitism worldwide, 2006

References

Political parties in Italy Major The People of Freedom – Democratic Party Medium Lega Nord – Italy of Values – Union of Christian and Centre Democrats/Union of the Centre – Future and Freedom Minor Italian Radicals – Alliance for Italy – Movement for Autonomies – We the South – The Populars of Italy Tomorrow – Communist Refoundation Party – Party of Italian Communists – Left Ecology Freedom – Five Star Movement – Federation of the Greens – Italian Socialist Party – Italian Republican Party – European Republicans Movement – Liberal Democrats – Alliance of the Centre – Italian Liberal Party – Populars for the South – The Right – Tricolour Flame – Workers' Communist Party – Associative Movement Italians Abroad Regional Valdotanian Union – Edelweiss Aosta Valley – Autonomist Federation – Autonomy Liberty Participation Ecology – Moderates for Piedmont – South Tyrolean People's Party – The Libertarians – South Tyrolean Freedom – Union for Trentino – Trentino Tyrolean Autonomist Party – Apulia First – United Populars – Moderates and Populars – I the South – Force of the South – Sardinian Reformers – Sardinian Action Party – Sardinian Democratic Union Politics of Italy – List of political parties in Italy – Historical parties