Rise of the Radical Right in Italy

This book examines the recent rise of the radical right in Italian politics in the years 2018–2022. The authors set the rise of the radical right within the context of electoral volatility and fragmentation that has underpinned post-1945 Italian politics and examine right-wing party competition between the two main radical right parties, Lega and Fratelli d’Italia, alongside the important shifts that have transformed the traditional center-right coalition (coalizione di centro-destra) in Italian politics. The volume concludes with implications for the global trajectory of the rise of different populist and radical right parties across Europe and the European Union, with many of these radical right parties now becoming significant political players across the world.

Valerio Alfonso Bruno is Research Fellow at Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, where he collaborates with Polidemos (Center for the Study of Democracy and Political Change) and fellow at the Far-Right Analyis Network (FRAN). Bruno is a specialist on the Italian far-right and has recently contributed to the Routledge Handbook of Far-Right Extremism in Europe and the Handbook Non-Violent Extremism. His online analyses have appeared, among others, on Al Jazeera, Financial Times, The Economist, France24. Dr James F. Downes is Assistant Professor I in Comparative Politics & International Relations at Hong Kong Metropolitan University. James is the Programme Leader (Head) of the Politics & Public Administration at Hong Kong Metropolitan University. James is also an Adjunct (Part-Time) Professor on the MSSc in Greater China Programme at The Chinese University of Hong Kong. He is a Research Fellow in the Global Europe Centre at the University of Kent/The Brussels School of International Studies and a Research Fellow at The Far-Right Analysis Network (FRAN). Dr Alessio Scopelliti is a Political Scientist and PostDoc at the University of Milan (DEMOPE project). He is also Research Assistant at the Royal Holloway University of London in the framework of Professor Joost van Spanje’s ERC Consolidator Grant project “New Parties on the News”. More recently, Alessio has also been appointed as Honorary Research Associate at the University of Bristol and Research Fellow at The Far-Right Analysis Network (FRAN).