What's Left of the Italian Right?

Abstract

The presence of a well-established neo-fascist party, the MSI, and the absence of a legitimate conservative Right has been considered for long time one of the anomalies of the Italian party system. The birth in 1995 from the ashes of the MSI of a new more moderate party, Alleanza Nazionale, and its rise to power in Berlusconi's 1994 and 2001 cabinets has been interpreted as the sign of a new era of success for the Italian Right. Nevertheless, four years after the dissolution of Alleanza Nazionale into the Berlusconi's Popolo della Libertà, the list led by the former AN leader, Gianfranco Fini, and the other "post-fascist" lists gathered in the whole, at the 2013 general elections, only 3,3% of the vote and only 9 deputies. This article tries to explain the main factors both of the sudden rise and the unexpected decline of this political family.