previously Italian Social Movement (MSI) Led by Gianfranco Fini 12.0% of the2001 general election votes While the MSI was directly linked to a post-war fascist movement nostalgic for Mussolini, and was formed by second level leaders of the fascist regime, at a party congress in 1994, it changed its name to the National Alliance and declared itself 'post-fascist'. In 1995, the AN allied itself to Forza Italia (FI), the newly-formed party of the media magnate Silvio Berlusconi to enjoy a brief spell in government - the first time a far-Right party had served in a national government of Europe since the second world war. Now, following the 2001 general election, it is once more a coalition partner in the Italian government with AN leader Gianfranco Fini even being appointed deputy prime minister. The AN has a nationalist, irredentist and anti-Communist agenda and is against immigration and multiculturalism. The Italian electoral system is such that no one political party forms a majority government, but centre-Left or centre-Right parties form alliances to contest elections. The 2001 general election saw victory for Berlusconi's right-wing alliance, 'The House of Liberties'. The AN has been rewarded with several cabinet posts and now controls the ministries of agriculture, environment and communication. AN leader Gianfranco Fini is the deputy prime minister. In elections for twenty regional councils in April 2000, the Freedom Alliance which included the AN won control of eight regional councils - Lazio, the Veneto and Liguria, Lombardia and Piedmont, Calabria, Puglia and Abruzzo. The AN are the most powerful of the Freedom Alliance parties in Lazio, which embraces Rome (the AN's Francesco Storace has been elected regional president), and the two southern regions of Apulia and Calabria. Netherthelesss, though, ele;ctoral support for the AN is actually declining. In local elections in May and June 2003, which affected 25 per cent of the electorate, there was a big swing against the Freedom Alliance and the AN had relatively poor showings in their strongest regions, only holding on to Trapani. In the second round, the AN lost control of the mayorality of Ragusa. In the June 2004 European parliamentary elections, the AN made modest gains and now has a total of nine MEPs.

previously Lombard League Led by Umberto Bossi 3.9% of the 1996 general election votes Unique amongst the parties under review, the NL campaigns for the break-up of the Italian nation state and for the creation of a new country in the North, 'Padania', with its own government. While operating a politics that denies ready classification into Left or Right, the NL has a racist and populist agenda against immigrants, refugees, homosexuals, Communists, Roma and poor southern Italians. It campaigns against the multicultural society and speaks of the need for a Christian crusade. The NL has 31 seats in the 630-member chamber of deputies and 16 senators in the 315-seat upper house. Despite this success, its electoral fortures has fallen dramatically since the 1996 general election where, like the AN, it served briefly in the coalition government of Silvio Berlusconi. Despite past differences, FI leader Berlusconi formed an electoral pact with the NL for the March 2001 general elections where the NL only scored 3.9 per cent of the vote. Yet, NL support is so crucial for the House of Liberties coalition in the upper house, that the NL has been rewarded with the control of three ministries, including the ministry for devolution from Rome and the welfare and labour ministry. In the June 2004 European parliamentary elections, the NL, with its list headed by Bossi, gained a total of two MEPs.