ABSTRACT
This chapter, while bringing together the different lines of investigation followed and their intersections, deals with a number of events which, in the past three years, have brought back to the centre stage of public debate the two cardinal issues discussed: immigration and Italianita. The views on national identity and immigration that emerge from the analysis of recent discussions seem to confirm the bleak picture of an Italianness. The bleak picture of an Italianness is trapped in a pessimistic interpretation anchored to an outdated polarisation between antagonistic ideological interpretations of the history of the country. It is also constructed through a generally tolerated exclusionary rhetoric rooted in an irreconcilable resentment insiders feel towards outsiders, against whom their own identity is constantly redefined. The analysis on the Northern League and the latest shifts within Salvini's party, particularly after the election of Salvini as party secretary, shows that immigration has become increasingly important in the party's rhetoric on Italianness.
