Italian Social Movement
Movimento Sociale Italiano |
|
---|---|
Leaders |
Giorgio Almirante Augusto De Marsanich Arturo Michelini Pino Rauti Gianfranco Fini |
Founded | 26 December 1946 |
Dissolved | 27 January 1995 |
Preceded by |
Italian Movement of Social Unity Italian's Front |
Succeeded by |
National Alliance Tricolour Flame |
Headquarters | Via della Scrofa 43, Rome (last) |
Newspaper | Secolo d'Italia |
Youth wing | Fronte della Gioventù (Youth Front) |
Membership | 202,715 (1993) 240,063 (peak, 1963) |
Ideology | Italian nationalism Neo-fascism Conservatism |
Political position | Right-wing to Far-right |
European affiliation |
European Social Movement (1951–62) National Party of Europe (1962–66) |
European Parliament group |
Non-Inscrits (1979–84) European Right (1984–89) Non-Inscrits (1989–95) |
Colours | Black |
Slogan | "Not repudiate, not restore" |
The Italian Social Movement (MSI), and later the Italian Social Movement – National Right (Italian: Movimento Sociale Italiano – Destra Nazionale, MSI–DN), was a neo-fascist and post-fascist political party in Italy.
Formed in 1946 by supporters of the former dictator Benito Mussolini, most of whom took part in the experience of the Italian Social Republic and the Republican Fascist Party, the MSI became the fourth largest party in Italy by the early 1960s. The party gave informal local and eventually national support to the Christian Democrats from the late 1940s and through the 1950s, sharing anti-communist ideologies. In the early 1960s, the party was pushed to the sidelines of Italian politics, and only gradually started to gain some political recognition in the 1980s.
There was internal competition between the party's moderate and radical factions. The radicals led the party in its formative years under Giorgio Almirante, while the moderates gained control in the 1950s and 1960s. Almirante's return as leader in 1969 was characterised by bigger-tent strategy. Finally, in 1987, the reins of the party were taken by Gianfranco Fini, under whom it was transformed into National Alliance (AN) in 1995. On that occasion a small minority, led by Pino Rauti, disagreed with the new course and formed Tricolour Flame instead.
The MSI derived its name and ideals from the Italian Social Republic (RSI), established by Benito Mussolini in 1943 behind Nazi German lines. The dominating party of the republic, Mussolini's Republican Fascist Party (PFR), inspired the creation of the MSI, and the MSI has been seen as the successor to both the PFR as well as the original National Fascist Party (PNF). The MSI was formed by former fascist leaders and veterans of the republic's fascist army. The party nevertheless tried to modernise and revise fascist doctrine into a more moderate and sophisticated direction. The MSI also drew from elements of the short-lived postwar populist Common Man's Front protest party.