Italy: Far-right sweeps polls
01 May 1994
The far-right alliance, Forzia Italia (Go Italy), led by media tycoon Silvio Berlusconi, won a disturbing victory in Italian elections at the end of March. They took 366 seats to obtain an absolute majority in the Chamber of Deputies and were also the biggest bloc in the Senate with 156 seats.
Forza Italia officially became a political party on February 1 with the explicit intention of merging the rightwing parties into an alliance to defeat the left. It incorporated the federalist Northern League, led by Umberto Bossi and the openly fascist Movimento Sociale Italiano (MSI) - renamed the National Alliance (NA) for the election - led by Gianfranco Fini.
Their twenty-five member government, announced after much squabbling six weeks after the elections, will include five ministers from the Northern League, seven from the Forza Italia and five from the NA. The latter include three members of the fascist MSI, Giuseppe Tatarella (Deputy Prime Minister with responsibility for post and telecommunications), Adriana Poli (Agriculture) and Altero Matteoli (Environment). The remaining ministers include four independent conservatives and several technocrats.
The Interior Ministry, which had been in the hands of the Christian Democrats since 1946, and which controls the police and secret service, went to the Northern League's Roberto Maroni, a close ally of Umberto Bossi. This will ensure that the federalist League will be able to exercise considerable power over local and regional government.
Other key posts went to Berlusconi's close associates. Cesare Previti, the lawyer to Berlusconi's financial empire, takes on Defence while Gianni Letta becomes Under Secretary at the Prime Minister's Office. Antonio Martino, who has been described as a "Thatcherite", is the Foreign Minister who will take over presidency of the European community and host the G7 conference in the summer.
Berlusconi's electoral campaign was successful because it presented Forzia Italia as untouched by the scandals that have rocked the Italian political system over the last few years. In fact, Berluscani has always been associated with the old corrupt regime. His meteoric rise to fame - and fortune - went hand in hand with that of Socialist leader Bettini Craxi who is currently facing corruption charges.
In 1978 he became a member of the Propaganda Due (P2) masonic lodge which, with the assistance of the CIA, established a state within a state whose tentacles extended into the government and political parties, secret services, armed forces, civil service and the police. It also colluded with the Mafia and provided logistical and financial backing for rightwing terrorists during the "years of lead".
Berlusconi's partners have also attempted to distance themselves from their past. Gianfranco Fini has repeatedly denied any continuity between the MSI, which was founded by Mussolini's supporters, and NA. Nonetheless, he has consistently refused to purge his party of its violent elements. Since the elections the leader of the Northern League, Umberto Bossi, has been accused of corruption following allegations that he accepted an £85,000 bribe.