The center-right in a search for unity and the re-emergence of the neo-fascist right

In 2017, the parties of the centre-right camp–Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia, Matteo Salvini’s (Northern) League and Giorgia Meloni’s Fratelli d’Italia–faced the puzzle of deciding whether to participate in the imminent general elections as allies or as rivals. On the one hand they had partially different aims (especially in relation to the European Union issue) and the problem of choosing the leadership of the alliance; on the other, the new electoral system, partially based on single-member districts, forced them to present common candidates in order to maximize their chances of reaching a majority of seats in parliament. In this article, we outline the stages through which the centre-right parties attempted to solve this puzzle over the course of the year, finally reaching an agreement to make a formal electoral alliance. In the final section of the article, we focus on one additional political actor of the right wing: the neo-fascist movements, notably Forza Nuova and CasaPound, which received significant media coverage during 2017. We describe how these movements were able to gain center stage and what this implied for the mainstream centre-right parties.