View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by LSE Theses Online The London School of Economics and Political Science EUROPE FROM THE FAR RIGHT EUROPE IN THE IDEOLOGY OF THE FRONT NATIONAL AND MOVIMENTO SOCIALE ITALIANO/ALLEANZA NAZIONALE (1978-2017) Marta Lorimer A thesis submitted to the European Institute of the London School of Economics for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, London, August 2019 Declaration I certify that the thesis I have presented for examination for the PhD degree of the London School of Economics and Political Science is solely my own work other than where I have clearly indicated that it is the work of others (in which case the extent of any work carried out jointly by me and any other person is clearly identified in it). The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. Quotation from it is permitted, provided that full acknowledgement is made. This thesis may not be reproduced without my prior written consent. I warrant that this authorisation does not, to the best of my belief, infringe the rights of any third party. I declare that my thesis consists of 80,580 words. Statement of use of third party for editorial help I can confirm that my thesis was copy edited for conventions of language, spelling and grammar by Dr. Brianna Beck (Chapter 6), Peter Ceretti (Chapter 7), and Dr. Maximillian Lemprière (Chapters 1-6). 2 Abstract Born as a small economic union, the European Union has become a large supranational political organisation. Far right parties have been vocal critics of this process, leading some to consider opposition to European integration as one of their defining ideological features. Closer inspection of their position, however, reveals that their views are more complex than the label ‘Euroscepticism’ captures. What, then, is the relationship between the far right and ‘Europe’? What do they mean by it and how has it become a part of their ideology? To address these questions, this thesis carries out an in-depth interpretive analysis of party documents produced between 1978 and 2017 by the Movimento Sociale Italiano/Alleanza Nazionale in Italy and the Front National in France. Employing morphological analysis, it studies how these parties integrated Europe into their ideology, and how they defined their positions on the European Union. The thesis’ core contention is that the MSI/AN and FN repurposed key elements of their ideology to integrate Europe into their worldview, thus giving rise to a distinctive far right conception of Europe. In particular, it shows how they employed the three concepts of Identity, Liberty and Threat to present a distinctive conception of Europe as a bounded community, a space of freedom, and an endangered civilisation. It then illustrates how these concepts, along with the concept of National Interest, came together in the parties’ positioning on the European Union. Through its diachronic focus, the thesis highlights how the parties display a strong level of continuity in their conception of Europe, using the same concepts to define it throughout the period of the study. These findings demonstrate the need to subject the equation of far right ideology and Euroscepticism to further scrutiny and acknowledge the complexity of far right thinking on Europe. 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES .......................................................................................................... 7 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................ 8 1. INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................. 11 THE ARGUMENT 12 FAR RIGHT PARTIES AND EUROPE: THE RESEARCH AGENDA 13 THE FAR RIGHT’S IDEOLOGY OF EUROPE: THE APPROACH 24 THE CONTRIBUTION 26 PLAN OF THE THESIS 27 2. STUDYING THE FAR RIGHT’S IDEOLOGY OF EUROPE ......................... 30 STUDYING THE FAR RIGHT’S IDEOLOGY OF EUROPE 30 SETTING SOME EXPECTATIONS 35 THE RESEARCH DESIGN 40 3. EUROPA PATRIA NOSTRA: EUROPE AS IDENTITY ................................. 54 MOBILISING THE CORE: FROM IDENTITY TO EUROPE 55 Defining the community: what is Europe? ......................................................................................... 56 Setting the boundaries of the community: who belongs? ................................................................... 66 European identity and belonging: ‘We the Europeans’? ................................................................... 74 OPENING THE CORE? FROM EUROPE TO IDENTITY 82 CONCLUSION 85 4. THE BATTLE FOR FREEDOM: EUROPE AND LIBERTY ......................... 87 MOBILISING THE CORE: FROM LIBERTY TO EUROPE 87 4 Free in their own countries: reclaiming autonomy and self-rule ...................................................... 89 The quest for power: the European mission ..................................................................................... 103 LIBERTY AS A SHARED CONCEPT: REVISITING NATIONAL AND EUROPEAN NARRATIVES 114 CONCLUSION 118 5. STATES OF EMERGENCY: EUROPE UNDER THREAT .......................... 120 ANCHORING THE CORE: EUROPE IN DANGER 121 Decline, breakdown and internal enemies: the danger within ......................................................... 124 Hostile states and foreign Others: the danger from outside ............................................................ 133 Many-headed monsters: diffuse sources of danger .......................................................................... 141 CONSTRUCTING CRISIS: EMERGENCY POLITICS AND PROVIDENTIAL ACTORS 149 CONCLUSION 153 6. A EUROPEAN UNION THAT PROTECTS AND DEFENDS: DEFINING THE PROGRAMME FOR ACTION ....................................................................... 154 THOUGHT INTO ACTION: FROM ‘UNDERSTANDING EUROPE’ TO ‘EU POLICIES’ 155 Unity in the face of danger: reasons, means and goals of European collaboration ........................ 157 Perfectible union or failed experiment? Assessing European integration ....................................... 165 Confederal? Yes, but how? Considering the future of European integration .................................. 176 CONSISTENTLY NATIONALIST: RENEWING COMMITMENT THROUGH EUROPE 183 CONCLUSION 187 7. CONCLUSION .................................................................................................... 188 SUMMARY OF THE FINDINGS AND CONTRIBUTION 188 AVENUES FOR FUTURE RESEARCH 198 APPENDIX .................................................................................................................. 201 APPENDIX A: CORPUS BUILDING 201 5 Data collection ................................................................................................................................. 201 Creating the corpus .......................................................................................................................... 201 APPENDIX B: DOCUMENTS SELECTED FOR IN-DEPTH ANALYSIS 205 List of analysed documents – Front National (65) ........................................................................... 205 Movimento Sociale Italiano (26) ...................................................................................................... 208 Alleanza Nazionale (21) ................................................................................................................... 210 APPENDIX C: SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIALS 211 BIBLIOGRAPHY ....................................................................................................... 212 6 LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Overview of concepts 52 Table 2: Summative table of Identity and Europe 86 Table 3: Summative table of Liberty and Europe 119 Table 4: Summative table of Threat and Europe 153 Table 5: Summative table of the programme for action 187 7 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS When people ask why I decided to study the far right and Europe, I tell them a story. It starts with a neo-fascist song overheard in a car in Sardinia, goes through a research-led YouTube rabbit hole, and ends with the puzzling discovery of far right pan-Europeanism. At that time, I could not understand why neo-fascists would advocate for a Nation Europe and how they could reconcile support for Europe with their belief in the nation. I am deeply indebted to my late supervisor Maurice Fraser for finding these questions equally interesting and encouraging me to apply for a PhD. Without his unfailing support in those early phases, I doubt I would have embarked on such a demanding journey. Whereas this thesis was born in Sardinia, it grew in various locations across Europe. In London and Bath, I owe a huge debt of gratitude to my supervisors, jonathan White and Roger Eatwell. They gave me the space to develop my own project, pushed me when they thought more work was needed, and reassured me when I was unsure about what I was doing. For their support, marathon supervision sessions, and for being such attentive readers of the many drafts it took to get here, I thank them. I also wish to acknowledge Abby Innes for asking me to think again and think better in my first year examination, and jennifer jackson-Preece for encouraging me to find the right language to discuss my research in the third year post-upgrade progress panel. My work would have not been possible without the staff at the BNF in Paris, the Biblioteca Cesare Alfieri in Florence and at the archives of the Fondazione Ugo Spirito in Rome. I am also deeply grateful to Gianfranco Fini, Jean-Yves Le Gallou, Marco Tarchi and the four (former) Front National members who