The new European migratory regime and the shifting patterns of contemporary racism

A New Nationalism? Once only a few of us would call Italy our fatherland. Today the majority of us do. Alleanza Nazionale, slogan for the Spring 2006 election campaign Let us remember the slogan— quoted above— adopted by Alleanza Nazionale (National Alliance), the political successor of the neofascist Movimento Sociale Italiano (Italian Social Movement) during the election campaign of Spring 2006. To say that this slogan contained a grain of truth— like any effective ideological statement— is hardly a provocative claim. In recent years, a sense of national belonging has been revived as a fundamental public value not only by the political right in its tense relationship with the secessionist movements in the North, which found a voice and gained political legitimacy through the Lega Nord (Northern League). From this point of view, the seven-year presidency of Carlo Azeglio Ciampi (1999– 2006) promoted and legitimized a process that was already in full swing. How indeed could one forget the increase in political rhetoric that accompanied the involvement of the Italian armed forces in military interventions during the 1990s? The emphasis on “the national interest” as the basis for direction in foreign policies, the promotion of “realism” in international relations, and the concern for Italy’s position in the world are certainly not characteristic of a rowdy band of Italian neocons.