Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
No stranger to controversy, Berlusconi caused international outrage in January 2012 when he publicly
defended Italy's former fascist dictator Mussolini on Holocaust Memorial Day.
The Post-War Period
But defeat in WWII didn't kill off Italian fascism and in 1946 hardline Mussolini support-
ers founded the
Movimento Sociale Italiano
(MSI; Italian Social Movement). For close on
50 years this overtly fascist party participated in mainstream Italian politics, while on the
other side of the spectrum the
Partito Comunista Italiano
(PCI; Italian Communist Party)
grew into Western Europe's largest communist party. The MSI was finally dissolved in
1994, when Gianfranco Fini rebranded it as the post-fascist
Alleanza Nazionale
(AN; Na-
tional Alliance). AN remained an important political player until it was incorporated into
Silvio Berlusconi's
Popolo della LibertÃ
party in 2009.
Outside the political mainstream, fascism (along with communism) was a driving force
of the domestic terrorism that rocked Italy during the
anni di piombo
(years of lead),
between the late 1960s and early 1980s. In these years, terrorist groups emerged on both
sides of the ideological spectrum, giving rise to a spate of politically inspired violence.
Most famously, the communist
Brigate Rosse
(Red Brigades) kidnapped and killed former
prime minister Aldo Moro in 1978, and the neo-fascist Armed Revolutionary Nuclei
bombed Bologna train station in 1980, killing 85 people and leaving up to 200 injured.
