Brothers of Italy
Brothers of Italy Fratelli d'Italia | |
|---|---|
| Abbreviation | FdI |
| President | Giorgia Meloni |
| Organisational Secretary | Giovanni Donzelli |
| Founders |
|
| Founded | 21 December 2012 |
| Split from | The People of Freedom |
| Preceded by | National Alliance[A] |
| Headquarters | Via della Scrofa 39, Rome |
| Newspaper | La Voce del Patriota |
| Student wing | Student Action University Action |
| Youth wing | National Youth |
| Membership (2021) | 130,000 |
| Ideology | National conservatism Right-wing populism Post-fascism[B] |
| Political position | Right-wing to far-right |
| National affiliation | Centre-right coalition |
| European affiliation | European Conservatives and Reformists Party |
| European Parliament group | EPP Group (2012–2014) ECR Group (since 2019) |
| International affiliation | International Democracy Union |
| Colours | Blue |
| Chamber of Deputies | 115 / 400 |
| Senate[C] | 66 / 206 |
| European Parliament | 24 / 76 |
| Regional Councils | 163 / 896 |
| Conference of Regions | 3 / 21 |
| Website | |
| fratelli-italia.it | |
^ A: Not direct predecessor. FdI was established by former AN members, who had been part of the PdL in 2008–2012, and is the current bearer of AN's symbol under the authorization of the National Alliance Foundation. ^ B: Some sources classify FdI as post-fascist, while others consider it neo-fascist. | |
Brothers of Italy (Italian: Fratelli d'Italia, FdI) is a national-conservative and right-wing populist political party in Italy, that is currently the country's ruling party. After becoming the largest party in the 2022 Italian general election, it consolidated as one of the two major political parties in Italy during the 2020s along with the Democratic Party. The party is led by Giorgia Meloni, the incumbent Prime Minister of Italy. Meloni's tenure has been described as the "most right-wing" government in Italy since World War II, whilst her time in government is frequently described as a shift towards the far-right in Italian politics.
In December 2012, FdI emerged from a right-wing split within The People of Freedom (PdL) party. The bulk of FdI's membership (including Meloni, who has led the party since 2014), and its symbol, the tricolour flame, hail from the National Alliance (AN), which was established in 1995 and merged into PdL in 2009. AN was the successor to the Italian Social Movement (MSI), a neo-fascist party active from 1946 to 1995. However, FdI is home also to several former Christian Democrats and half of its ministers are not former MSI members.
According to Meloni and leading members, FdI is a mainstream conservative party. Academics and observers have variously described it as conservative, national-conservative, social-conservative, right-wing populist, nationalist, neo-fascist, post-fascist, nativist, and anti-immigrant. The party espouses a Eurosceptic position, while being in favour of Atlanticism. While its MEPs were originally affiliated with the European People's Party Group, they left in 2014 and joined the European Conservatives and Reformists in 2019, which has been led by Meloni from 2020 to 2025. FdI proposes a "confederal Europe" of nations as opposed to a "federal Europe".