The Italian Nationalist Association (''Associazione Nazionalista Italiana'', ANI) was Italy's first

nationalist Nationalism is an idea or movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the State (polity), state. As a movement, it presupposes the existence and tends to promote the interests of a particular nation,Anthony D. Smith, Smith, A ...

political movement founded in 1910, under the influence of Italian nationalists such as

Enrico Corradini Enrico Corradini (20 July 1865 – 10 December 1931) was an Italian novelist, essayist, journalist and nationalist political figure. Biography Corradini was born near Montelupo Fiorentino, Tuscany. A follower of Gabriele D'Annunzio, he founde ...

and

Giovanni Papini Giovanni Papini (9 January 18818 July 1956) was an Italian journalist, essayist, novelist, short story writer, poet, literary critic, and Italian philosophy, philosopher. A controversial literary figure of the early and mid-twentieth century, he ...

. Upon its formation, the ANI supported the repatriation of Austrian held Italian-populated lands to

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

and was willing to endorse war with

Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, also referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the Habsburg Monarchy, was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Europe#Before World War I, Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. A military ...

to do so. The party had a paramilitary wing called the

Blueshirts The Army Comrades Association (ACA), later the National Guard, Young Ireland and finally League of Youth, known by the nickname the Blueshirts (), was a paramilitary organisation in the Irish Free State, founded in 1932.New Irish Army Arises, Ne ...

. The authoritarian nationalist faction of the ANI would be a major influence for the

National Fascist Party The National Fascist Party (, PNF) was a political party in Italy, created by Benito Mussolini as the political expression of Italian fascism and as a reorganisation of the previous Italian Fasces of Combat. The party ruled the Kingdom of It ...

Benito Mussolini Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (29 July 188328 April 1945) was an Italian politician and journalist who, upon assuming office as Prime Minister of Italy, Prime Minister, became the dictator of Fascist Italy from the March on Rome in 1922 un ...

formed in 1921. In 1922 the ANI participated in the

March on Rome The March on Rome () was an organized mass demonstration in October 1922 which resulted in Benito Mussolini's National Fascist Party (, PNF) ascending to power in the Kingdom of Italy. In late October 1922, Fascist Party leaders planned a march ...

, with an important role, but it was not completely aligned with Benito Mussolini's party. Nevertheless, the ANI merged into the Fascist Party in October 1923.

Ideology

The ANI's ideology remained largely undefined for some time other than it being nationalist. The ANI was divided between supporters of different kinds of nationalism - authoritarian, democratic, moderate, and

revolutionary A revolutionary is a person who either participates in, or advocates for, a revolution. The term ''revolutionary'' can also be used as an adjective to describe something producing a major and sudden impact on society. Definition The term—bot ...

.Payne, Pp. 65Payne, Pp. 64 Corradini, the ANI's most popular spokesman, linked leftism with nationalism by claiming that Italy was a "

proletarian nation Proletarian nation was a term used by 20th century Italian nationalist intellectuals such as Enrico Corradini to refer to Italy and other nations that they regarded as being productive, morally vigorous, and inclined to bold action, which they c ...

" which was being exploited by international capitalism which had led to Italy being disadvantaged economically in international trade and its people divided on class lines, but instead of advocating socialist revolution, he claimed that victory against these oppressing forces would require Italian nationalist sentiment to succeed.

"We are the proletarian people in respect to the rest of the world. Nationalism is our socialism. This established, nationalism must be founded on the truth that Italy is morally and materially a proletarian nation." ''Manifesto of the Italian Nationalist Association, December 1910.''Talmon, Jacob Leib. ''The Myth of the Nation and the Vision of Revolution: The Origins of Ideological Polarization''. Berkeley and Los Angeles, California, USA: University of California Press Pp. 484.

"We must start by recognizing the fact that there are proletarian nations as well as proletarian classes; that is to say, there are nations whose living conditions are subject ... to the way of life of other nations, just as classes are. Once this is realized, nationalism must insist firmly on this truth: Italy is, materially and morally, a proletarian nation.''" (''Report to the First Nationalist Congress'', Enrico Corradini,
Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...
, December 3, 1910)

Corradini occasionally used the term "national socialism" to define the ideology which he endorsed. Though this is the same term used by the movement of National Socialism in Germany (a.k.a.

Nazism Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During Hitler's rise to power, it was fre ...

) no evidence exists to indicate that Corradini's use of the term had any influence. In 1914, the ANI began to tilt towards authoritarian nationalism with its endorsement of the creation of an authoritarian corporate state, a radical idea created by Italian law professor

Alfredo Rocco Alfredo Rocco (9 September 1875 – 28 August 1935) was an Italian politician and jurist. He was Professor of Commercial Law at the University of Urbino (1899–1902) and in Macerata (1902–1905), then Professor of Civil Procedure in Parma, of ...

. Such a corporate state would be led by a corporate assembly rather than a parliament, which would be composed of unions, business organisations and other economic organisations that would work within a powerful state government to regulate business-labour relations, organise the economy, end class conflict, and make Italy an industrial state which could compete with imperial powers and establish its own empire.

Membership

Many of the ANI supporters were wealthy Italians of right-wing authoritarian nationalist background, in spite of efforts by Corradini and left-leaning nationalists to make the ANI a nationalist mass movement supported by the working-class.

Prominent members

''(In alphabetical order.)'' * Francesco Coppola *

Luigi Federzoni Luigi Federzoni (27 September 1878 – 24 January 1967) was an Italian nationalist and later Fascist politician. Biography Federzoni was born in Bologna. Educated at the university there, he took to journalism and literature, and for several ye ...

Roberto Forges Davanzati Roberto Forges Davanzati (23 February 1880, Naples1 June 1936, Rome) was an Italian journalist, academic and politician. Initially a syndicalist, he later became a nationalist and fascist. Life and career After obtaining a degree in law Forges D ...

* Ezio Maria Gray * Maurizio Maraviglia *

Electoral results

Italian Parliament

Notes

{{Authority control 1910 establishments in Italy 1923 disestablishments in Italy Political parties established in 1910 Political parties disestablished in 1923 Defunct political parties in Italy Defunct nationalist parties in Italy Catholic political parties