Arturo Michelini

Arturo Michelini (17 February 1909 - 15 June 1969) 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.[1] Despite this, Michelini, a pro-Franco veteran of the Spanish Civil War, did not hold office in the Italian Social Republic.[2]

Michelini emerged as leader of the MSI in 1954 and sought to moderate the party's neo-fascism in an attempt to bring it more into the political mainstream, an endeavour in which he largely failed.[1] Linked to financial powers in Rome as well as the Vatican City who sought to move the MSI away from its third position rhetoric into more conservative ideals.[3] His policies helped to push some of the more radical elements out of the party and into such fringe groups as Avanguardia Nazionale and Ordine Nuovo.[4] Despite these attempts at moderation the MSI lost support under Michelini's dropping from 5.8% in the 1953 general election to 4.9% in the 1958 election.[5] He nevertheless remained leader until his death when Giorgio Almirante, the head of the extremist faction, returned to the leadership.

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 P. Davies & D. Lynch, The Routledge Companion to Fascism and the Far Right, 2002, p.225
  2. ↑ R. Eatwell, Fascism A History, 2003, p. 250
  3. ↑ Franco Ferraresi, Threats to Democracy - The Radical Right in Italy After the War, Princeton University Press, 1996, p. 24
  4. ↑ Ferraresi, Threats to Democracy, p. 53
  5. ↑ Ferraresi, Threats to Democracy, p. 28