Brothers of Italy
Fratelli d'Italia |
|
---|---|
President | Giorgia Meloni |
Founded | 17 Decembre 2012 |
Split from | The People of Freedom |
Headquarters | Via di San Teodoro, 20 00186 Rome |
Newspaper | La Gazzetta Tricolore |
Youth wing | Gioventù Nazionale |
Membership (2014) | 50,000 |
Ideology |
National conservatism Nationalism Euroscepticism Social conservatism |
Political position | Right-wing |
European affiliation | none |
European Parliament group | no MEPs |
Colours | Blue |
Chamber of Deputies |
11 / 630
|
Senate |
0 / 315
|
European Parliament |
0 / 73
|
Website | |
www |
|
Brothers of Italy (Italian: Fratelli d'Italia, FdI), whose complete name is Brothers of Italy – National Alliance (Fratelli d'Italia – Alleanza Nazionale, FdI–AN) is a National conservative political party in Italy.
In November 2012 Ignazio La Russa and Maurizio Gasparri, leaders of the Protagonist Right, a faction within The People of Freedom (PdL), announced their support for Angelino Alfano in the party primary scheduled for December. The subsequent cancellation of the primary was not agreed with by La Russa and many others in the party.
On 16 December Giorgia Meloni and Fabio Rampelli, Guido Crosetto and Giuseppe Cossiga organised in Rome the so-called "Primaries of Ideas", in which they openly criticised Silvio Berlusconi's leadership and any possible prospect of an electoral alliance with Prime Minister Mario Monti, proposed by some leading factions of the party (Liberamente, Network Italy, Reformism and Freedom, Liberal Populars, New Italy, FareItalia, etc.).
On 17 December La Russa, one of the three national coordinators of the PdL, announced he was leaving the party in order to form "National Centre-right", including not just right-wingers, but also Christian democrats and liberals from Forza Italia (FI) like Crosetto and Cossiga. The split from the PdL was agreed with Berlusconi in order to better represent the Italian right and present an appealing choice to right-wing voters. Simultaneously, Crosetto and Meloni announced the formation of "Brothers of Italy", whose name was taken from the first line of the national anthem. On 21 December the two groups, formed mainly by former members of National Alliance (La Russa, Meloni, Rampelli, Massimo Corsaro, Viviana Beccalossi, Alfredo Mantica, etc.) joined forces as "Brothers of Italy – National Centre-right", usually shortened to "Brothers of Italy" (FdI).