Italy: Far-right sweeps polls (1)
01 January 1991
Italy: Far-right sweeps polls
artdoc July=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.
Statewatch, vol 4 no 3, May-June 1994
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