CERC Public Seminar: 'The split between the Alleanza Nazionale and the Lega Nord on immigration policy: Empire and Counter-Empire in the Italian Far Right'

Tuesday 21 February 1:00 - 2:00 pm

at Room 212, Level 2, 234 Queensberry Street, The University of Melbourne

presented by

Damian Spruce

(Institute for International Studies, University of Technology, Sydney)

Abstract

What old Fascisms and new nationalisms are circulating in the political spaces of Europe? Through an analysis of their split on immigration policy in 2003, this paper examines the myths and ideologies of the two major Far Right parties in Italy: the Lega Nord and the Alleanza Nazionale. It argues that the anti-imperial mythology of the Lega, based on the defence of Lombardy against the Holy Roman Empire, has led it into a modernist politics of territoriality, borders and homogeneity. On the other hand, the Alleanza Nazionale has used its Fascist heritage, and in particular the mythologising of the Roman Empire, to open up a postmodern imperial politics, involving the expansion of borders, and the incorporation of new peoples and territories.

Through the use of interviews with politicians and grass-root party militants the paper looks at how the Alleanza has rearticulated imperial Fascist mythologies within a new pro-EU discourse, while the Lega has maintained its role of protest against deterritorialization despite the seeming inevitability of the territorial integration of Europe.

Biography

Damian Spruce is a refugee lawyer and political adviser, and is currently undertaking doctoral research at the Institute of International Studies at UTS, and the Facoltà di Scienze Politiche at the Università di Bologna. His research on immigration politics in the Italian Far Right is to be published in the journal Theory, Culture and Society this year. His current work is on the influence of Australian immigration management and border control policies on European governments, and in particular the Italian state's use of the 'Pacific Solution' as a model for handling immigration flows across the Mediterranean.