ABSTRACT
The Italian elections in April 1994 yielded two surprising and unexpected results: victory for Berlusconi’s Forza Italia, and the strong performance of the right-wing coalition Alleanza Nazionale (AN). This right-conservative alliance, led by the Movimento Sociale Italiano (MSI), received nearly double the votes that neo-fascist parties previously had attracted in post-war Italy. With 13.4 per cent of the valid votes, the AN now constitutes the third strongest faction in the Italian Parliament, even superseding the declining Partito Popolare Italiano (formerly the Christian Democrats, who had once led government coalitions). The ascendancy of the extreme right, confirmed by comparable gains in the May 1994 European elections, marks a radical change in Italian politics. For the first time in the country’s post-war history, the extreme right escaped the political ghetto and gained an influential voice in the national government.
