The National Movement for Sovereignty (, MNS) was a

national-conservative National conservatism is a nationalism, nationalist variant of conservatism that concentrates on upholding National identity, national and cultural identity, communitarianism and the public role of religion. It shares aspects of traditionalist c ...

political party in Italy This is a list of political parties in Italy since Italian unification in 1861. Throughout history, numerous political parties have been operating in Italy. Since World War II no party has ever gained enough support to govern alone; thus, partie ...

, founded on 18 February 2017, with the merger of National Action and The Right. Its founders were

Gianni Alemanno Giovanni "Gianni" Alemanno (born 3 March 1958) is an Italian politician who from April 2008 until June 2013 was mayor of Rome for The People of Freedom. He was the secretary of the National Movement for Sovereignty from 2017 to 2019. Career At ...

and Francesco Storace, both former ministers and former leaders of the two founding parties, respectively. The MNS had his powerbase in

Lazio Lazio ( , ; ) or Latium ( , ; from Latium, the original Latin name, ) is one of the 20 Regions of Italy, administrative regions of Italy. Situated in the Central Italy, central peninsular section of the country, it has 5,714,882 inhabitants an ...

, the region of

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

and a traditional stronghold of Italian right-wing parties: Alemanno served as

mayor of Rome The mayor of Rome () is an elected politician who, along with the City Council of Rome, Rome City Council () of 48 members, is accountable for the strategic government of Rome. As Rome is a ''Comune, comune speciale'' since 2009, the office is d ...

(2008–2013), Storace as President of Lazio (2000–2005). The party was finally merged into

Brothers of Italy Brothers of Italy (, FdI) is a National conservatism, national-conservative and Right-wing populism, right-wing populist political party in Italy, that is currently the country's ruling party. After becoming the largest party in the 2022 Ita ...

in December 2019.

History

The roots of the MNS can be traced in the tradition of the

Italian Social Movement The Italian Social Movement (, MSI) was a neo-fascist political party in Italy. A far-right party, it presented itself until the 1990s as the defender of Italian fascism's legacy, and later moved towards national conservatism. In 1972, the Itali ...

(MSI), the party of the post-

fascist Fascism ( ) is a far-right, authoritarian, and ultranationalist political ideology and movement. It is characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural soci ...

right, and its successor, National Alliance (AN), launched in 1993 and established in 1995. Both National Action and The Right are heirs of that tradition. The latter was founded in 2007 by former President of Lazio Francesco Storace, who opposed the merger of National Alliance into

The People of Freedom The People of Freedom (, PdL) was a centre-right political party in Italy. The PdL launched by Silvio Berlusconi as an electoral list, including and National Alliance, on 27 February for the 2008 Italian general election. The list was later t ...

, while National Action was launched in 2015 by former mayor of Rome

. Both Alemanno and Storace hailed from the Social Right faction of the defunct National Alliance. During its founding congress in February 2017, the MNS elected Alemanno secretary and Storace president. The party aimed at forming a broad "Sovereignitist Pole" with the Northern League (LN),

Direction Italy Direction Italy (, DI) was a liberal conservatism, liberal-conservative list of political parties in Italy, political party in Italy. The party was led by Raffaele Fitto, an Member of the European Parliament, MEP in the European Conservatives and ...

, and others. However, Brothers of Italy did not take part to the MNS' founding congress, despite being invited. In the run-up of the 2018 general election the party endorsed

Matteo Salvini Matteo Salvini (; born 9 March 1973) is an Italian politician who has been serving as Deputy Prime Minister of Italy and Italian Minister of Infrastructure and Transport, Minister of Infrastructure and Transport since 2022. He has been List of F ...

and the LN, which was restyled as "League". As a result, the MNS had a few candidates in League's lists. However, Storace disagreed with Alemanno on them and on which candidate the party should endorse in the regional election in

: the former favoured right-wing independent Sergio Pirozzi, the latter the official centre-right candidate Stefano Parisi. When Storace resigned from president, Alemanno tried to mind fences (the role of president remained temporarily vacant), but also led the party to officially support Parisi. Storace denounced that the episode had marked his "definitive imcompatibility with the MNS". Claudio Barbaro of the MNS was elected senator under the agreement between the party and the League. In May 2018, Roberto Menia replaced Storace, who had left the party, as MNS president. In March 2019, after being sentenced in the ''

Mafia Capitale The Mafia Capitale is the name given to an organized crime organization, and subsequent investigation, involving the government of the city of Rome, in which members stole money destined for city services and carried out other criminal activities ...

'' trial, Alemanno resigned as secretary of the MNS. In the

2019 European Parliament election The 2019 European Parliament election was held in the European Union (EU) between 23 and 26 May 2019. It was the ninth parliamentary election since the first direct elections in 1979. A total of 751 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) we ...

the MNS presented its candidates on the lists of

(FdI). Subsequently, in June 2019, the MNS formed a federative pact with FdI. In July 2019

Marco Cerreto Marco Cerreto (born 1 January 1971) is an Italian politician of Brothers of Italy who was elected member of the Chamber of Deputies (Italy), Chamber of Deputies in 2022 Italian general election, 2022. He served as national secretary of the Natio ...

was elected new secretary of the MNS. In December 2019 the MNS was finally merged into FdI.FdI abbraccia il movimento nazionale. «La risposta all’appello di Giorgia: casa comune a destra»
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Founding parties

Additionally, a number of associations and local groups joined the MNS.

Leadership

*Secretary:

(2017–2019),

(2019) *President: Francesco Storace (2017–2018), Roberto Menia (2018–2019) **Deputy Secretary: Roberto Menia (2017–2018) **Spokesperson:

(2018–2019) **Organisational Secretary: Roberto Buonasorte (2017–2018), Felice Costini (2018–2019) *Coordinator of the National Board:

Giuseppe Scopelliti Giuseppe Scopelliti (born 21 November 1966 in Reggio Calabria, Italy) is an Italian politician. Mayor of Reggio Calabria He was elected Mayor of Reggio Calabria in 2002. According to investigations of anti-mafia investigators in 2016, Scopelliti ...

(2017–2019) *President of the College of Guarantee: Livio Proietti (2017–2019) *Guarantors: Domenico Nania (2017–2019), Paolo Agostinacchio (2017–2018), Francesco Bevilacqua (2018–2019)

External links

Official websiteAzioneNazionale.itLaDestra.com

References

{{Historical Italian political parties Defunct nationalist parties in Italy National conservative parties Right-wing parties in Europe Eurosceptic parties in Italy 2017 establishments in Italy 2019 disestablishments in Italy Political parties established in 2017 Political parties disestablished in 2019 Conservative parties in Italy Right-wing politics in Italy