National Action (Italy)


National Action was a conservative political party in Italy.
Its members initially insisted that National Action, whose acronym is intentionally identical to that of the defunct National Alliance, was not a party, but a cultural association. The new AN's mentors were Gianfranco Fini and Gianni Alemanno.
National Action includes people affiliated to several groups, notably including FreeRight, Italy First and Alto Adige in the Heart, and various individuals previously active in the old AN.
In 2017 the party was merged, along with The Right, into the National Movement for Sovereignty.

History

The roots of the party can be traced in the tradition of the Italian Social Movement, the party of the post-fascist right, and its successor, National Alliance, launched in 1993 and established in 1995.
In October 2015 the assembly of the "National Alliance Foundation", the association in charge of administering the assets of the defunct party, confirmed the license to use the name and the symbol to Brothers of Italy, a right-wing party led by Giorgia Meloni. A front inspired by Fini, not a Foundation member, and led by Alemanno, who had proposed to form a larger party, opposed the decision. After his defeat, Alemanno announced that he would create a "movement for the united right".
The new AN was launched on 9 November 2015 by a group of former AN members, who had joined forces with Alemanno during the Foundation's latest assembly. Fausto Orsomarso was appointed coordinator, Pasquale Viespoli president. Fini did not participate in the party's first press conference and Alemanno was silent, but the symbol was registered by Roberto Menia, Marco Cerreto and Giuseppe Scopelliti.
AN and The Right, Storace's own party, merged into the National Movement for Sovereignty in February 2017. The new party elected Alemanno secretary, Menia deputy secretary and Scopelliti coordinator of the national board. However, neither Orsomarso, who had joined the FdI a month earlier, nor Viespoli joined.

Ideology

National Action included people with very different political sensibilities, despite being mostly former members of National Alliance. In fact, over the years, Fini had become a staunch Europeanist and much of a social liberal when it came to abortion, LGBT issues, euthanasia, immigration and separation of church and state, while Alemanno had always been a representative of the Social Right, whose program included traditional values and suspicion of the free market, and opposed the Euro. According to Fini's remarks, the new AN would be a bulwark of the moderate right as opposed to the one represented by FdI and Lega Nord, the old AN's nemesis.
The party's credo was, however, quite traditional and socially conservative. AN wanted to "guarantee Italians first", supported life "from conception to natural death", gave emphasis to Italian sovereignty, and took a critical approach toward the European Union in its current form.

Leadership