Italian Social Movement

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Template:Infobox Italy Former Political Party

The Italian Social Movement (Movimento sociale italiano ) (MSI) was a neo-Fascist party formed 1946 in the post-World War II period by supporters of the executed dictator Benito Mussolini under the lead of Giorgio Almirante. It was dissolved in January 1995 by Gianfranco Fini, who founded the Alleanza Nazionale (AN), which embraced neoliberalism and claimed to respect democratic rules. Other hardliners founded the Fiamma Tricolore, Alessandra Mussolini, granddaughter of Il Duce, founded the Alternativa Sociale coalition. Furthermore, Gaetano Saya, leader of the outlawed Department of Anti-terrorism Strategic Studies (DSSA), founded the Nuovo Movimento Sociale Italiano - Destra Nazionale in 2000. Several members or close partners of the MSI were involved in Italy's strategy of tension during the "anni di piombo ("lead years").

1 MSI, a creation of the fascist "Italian Social Republic"
2 Involvement in Gladio's strategia della tensione
3 Gianfranco Fini's leadership (1987-1989; 1990-1995) and MSI's dissolution
4 References
5 Literature
6 See also
7 External links

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MSI, a creation of the fascist "Italian Social Republic"

For many of its supporters, MSI was both a reference to the Italian Social Republic, a Nazi puppet state in northern Italy also known as the Republic of Salò, and could also mean "Mussolini sei immortale", or "Mussolini you are immortal".

The neofascist Movimento Sociale Italiano was relegated to a state of paralegality because it refused to acknowledge the legitimacy of the new republic; it was therefore found at once inside and outside the post-war party system. The MSI was the keeper of the fascist torch mostly in a nostalgic mode, loyal to the fascism of the Republic of Salò.

An array of themes remained nearly identical for forty years which incuded:

advocacy of the third way in between liberal capitalism and social-communism;
rejection of the party system;
intransigent anticommunism;
appeals for a strong executive branch;
support for aggressive government intervention in the social sphere;
opposition to the guiding role of superpowers in international politics.

MSI's national election results were around the 5%. Its members were mostly of the southern underclass and the rural oligarchy and in the 1970s from the urban middle classes.

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Involvement in Gladio's strategia della tensione

In 1956, Pino Rauti founded the Ordine Nuovo terrorist group, which carried on the December 1969 Piazza Fontana bombing, which started the Italian "lead years" (anni di piombo). Stefano Delle Chiaie, a member of MSI, founded Avanguardia Nazionale, which also took part in the strategy of tension. As a member of Armed Revolutionary Nuclei, an offshoot from Ordine Nuovo, Stefano Delle Chiaie was involved in the 1980 Bologna massacre, which is generally considered to be one of the last important bombings of the anni di piombo. Furthermore, Junio Valerio Borghese, who attempted a coup in 1970 (known as the Golpe Borghese with Stefano Delle Chiaie and Licio Gelli, headmaster of Propaganda Due (P2) masonic lodge), quit the MSI, which he considered too soft, to found the Fronte Nazionale. As Stefano Delle Chiaie's National Vanguard party, it was later proved to be infiltrated by members of the Italian intelligence agencies, whom were involved in false flags operations, coordinated by Gladio. 1969 Piazza Fontana bombing and the 1980 Bologna train-station massacre are examples of such "false flags" operations, which aimed at terrorizing the Italian population into voting for an authoritative government, while blaming the attacks on far-left groups, in order to discredit the Italian Communist Party (PCI). Gladio, which was NATO's secret "stay-behind" paramilitary organizations during the Cold War, has been also alleged of being ultimately responsible for the assassination of Aldo Moro, leader of the Christian-Democracy, in 1978. The leader of the Italian intelligence services, member of P2, was accused of negligency during the negotiations with the Second Red Brigades, who had kidnapped the Italian premier <ref> Daniele Ganser, "Terrorism in Western Europe: An Approach to NATO's Secret Stay-Behind Armies" in Winter/Spring 2005 Whitehead Journal of Diplomacy and International Relations </ref>.

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Gianfranco Fini's leadership (1987-1989; 1990-1995) and MSI's dissolution

Gianfranco Fini took over the party leadership from Giorgio Almirante in 1987 and set about modernising the party (except for a brief spell between 1989 and 1990 when Pino Rauti, who had returned to the MSI in 1969, was leader). In January 1995 Fini officially proclaimed the party's dissolution as well as the abandonment of the ideological stances, symbols, gestures and salutes that had closely identified it with the Mussolinian past.

He announced the foundation of the Alleanza Nazionale ("National Alliance" - AN), a neoliberal right-wing movement which claimed to be committed to the democratic process, centrist in orientation and opposed in its constitution to antisemitism, xenophobia and racism.

The Fiamma Tricolore was born from the more hardline right-wing members of the party. On one hand, National Alliance (AN) members of the European Parliament (MEPs) have joined the Parliament's Union for Europe of the Nations Group (UEM). On the other hand, MEPs from the Fiamma Tricolore have remained unattached to any European parliamentary group. Other well-known party members have included Alessandra Mussolini, granddaughter of Benito Mussolini. In 1997, Adriano Tilgher founded the Fronte Sociale Nazionale as a breakaway faction from the Fiamma Tricolore.

In November 2004, after Gianfranco Fini visited Israel in the function of Italian deputy prime minister and described fascism as "an absolute evil", Alessandra Mussolini, left the party together with some hardliners and founded the Alternativa Sociale coalition, which included Adriano Tilgher's Fronte Sociale Nazionale. However, Gianfranco Fini later specified that the expression "absolute evil" only referred to the racial laws.

Gaetano Saya, leader of the outlawed Department of Anti-terrorism Strategic Studies (DSSA), founded the Nuovo Movimento Sociale Italiano - Destra Nazionale in 2000. Gaetano Saya and Ricardo Sindocca, the other DSSA leader, both claimed to be former members of Gladio, NATO's secret "stay-behind" paramilitary organizations involved in false flags terrorists attacks during the anni di piombo.

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References

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Literature

Roberto Chiarini: "The 'Movimento Sociale Italiano': A Historical Profile" in Neo-Fascism in Europe.
Betz, Radical Right Wing Populism in Western Europe, op.cit., p 41.

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