Thread by @DrAlbertazziUK

The week-long series of debates, meetings & cultural events organised by Brothers of Italy (“Conservatives’ Christmas”) has come to an end. It has been a success for @GiorgiaMeloni, in terms of media coverage & participation by many high profile reps from all major parties.

(they were all duly hit on the head with a stick by her during her final speech, but that’s life...)

While Meloni’s willingness to be identified as a “conservative” is interesting and worth keeping an eye on, it’s also worth noting that this internal dialectic between “revolutionaries” and “conservatives” has always characterised the Italian Social Movement..

and related organisations throughout their history – and this is where her party comes from.

/SHORT THREAD/

At the end of the '80s I went to Vicolo Posterla (Bologna), where the city's Fronte della Gioventù (Youth Front) was based. Carabinieri were stationed at both entrances to the narrow street, as violent clashes between left & right were still a very real possibility back then.

The Front was independent from the Italian Social Movement (although related to it), and often very critical of the latter’s policies. Nonetheless many who will then take up positions in the party, including one Fini and one Alemanno, had been active within the Front

The people I was there to interview were openly Fascist (indeed Mussolini’s bust greeted me as I climbed the stairs to the upper floors).

I was interviewing them on behalf of a radical left radio, but following the huge backlash from listeners this caused both the producer and I were kept on a much shorter leash – but this is for another day.

There are two things from that day that I cannot forget: the poster of Che-Guevara in one of the rooms upstairs and a statement during one of the interviews: “our worst enemies are not Socialists nor Communists, we have them within the MSI. It’s the conservatives”.

Throughout its history, the MSI had been plagued by a clash (at times violent) between “revolutionaries” (who looked at "fascism the movement”, 1919, for inspiration), and “conservatives”, among whom there was even the odd monarchist.

The former wanted the right to be anti-capitalist, anti-American (George Bush was booed during his visit to Italy in 1989), anti-NATO and very focused on what today would be called the “losers of globalisation”, or “left behind”, as well as factory workers.

The latter had accepted American hegemony & saw it as inevitable, given what they saw as the Communist peril from the East, longed for an authoritarian society dominated by Church/law and order, and were at peace with capitalism.

While the latter's faction dominated the MSI throughout most of its history, the Front was run by revolutionaries (hence Che-Guevara… hence also their interest in anti-colonial movements in Africa & South America).

For the people I interviewed that day, a conservative party in favour of the small state & cuts to welfare, & one at peace with the USA, was anathema. More dangerous than Communism, because it was attracting those on the right.

Fast forward to 2022 & those punch ups at party congresses may be a thing of the past. But it remains true that the recipe of tax cuts and attacks against the welfare state Meloni has put forward...

... remain at odds with the views of those within the right who feel "the loosers" are being sacrificed to the Gods of globalisation and the profits of multinational corposations, & want nothing to do with American values.

On the other hand, these proposals are perfectly compatible with those of League and Forza Italia. In this respect, like in many others, the right remains more homogenous and coherent than the centre-left alliance has ever been.

And it's not as if a mixture of patriotism, "save Christmas", anti-immigration & tax cuts has not been seen before in Europe. Indeed it was arguably the winning formula for the radical right during the 1990s (think Freedom party in Austria).

/END/