Italy First (''Prima l'Italia'') was a

national-conservative National conservatism is a nationalist variant of conservatism that concentrates on upholding national and cultural identity. National conservatives usually combine nationalism with conservative stances promoting traditional cultural values, ...

political party in Italy This article contains a list of political parties in Italy since Italian unification in 1861. Throughout history, numerous political parties have been operating in Italy, and since World War II no party has ever gained enough support to govern ...

, which was briefly a faction of

Brothers of Italy Brothers of Italy ( it, Fratelli d'Italia, FdI) is a national-conservative and right-wing populist political party in Italy. It is led by Giorgia Meloni, the incumbent Prime Minister of Italy and the first woman to serve in the position. Accor ...

(FdI) and then joined into National Action (AN). The party was supported by the New Italy foundation, previously active within

The People of Freedom The People of Freedom ( it, Il Popolo della Libertà, PdL) was a centre-right political party in Italy. The PdL, launched by Silvio Berlusconi on 18 November 2007, was initially a federation of political parties, notably including Forza Italia a ...

(PdL) as Alemanno's factional think tank.

History

Italy First was launched as a "political association" in October 2013 by

Gianni Alemanno Giovanni "Gianni" Alemanno (born 3 March 1958) is an Italian politician who from April 2008 until June 2013 was Mayor of Rome for the centre-right People of Freedom. He was the Secretary of the National Movement for Sovereignty from 2017 to 201 ...

, a former mayor of

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

(2008–2013) for the PdL. A long-time politician of the

Italian Social Movement The Italian Social Movement ( it, Movimento Sociale Italiano, MSI) was a neo-fascist political party in Italy. A far-right party, it presented itself until the 1990s as the defender of Italian fascism's legacy, and later moved towards national ...

(MSI) and National Alliance (AN), within which he led the

Social Right Social conservatism is a political philosophy and variety of conservatism which places emphasis on traditional power structures over social pluralism. Social conservatives organize in favor of duty, traditional values and social institutio ...

faction, Alemanno had left the PdL a few days earlier. The founding manifesto of Italy First included criticism of the PdL, its participation in the

European People's Party The European People's Party (EPP) is a European political party with Christian-democratic, conservative, and liberal-conservative member parties. A transnational organisation, it is composed of other political parties. Founded by primarily Ch ...

and its compliance to

Europeanism European values are the norms and values that Europeans are said to have in common, and which transcend national or state identity. In addition to helping promote European integration, this doctrine also provides the basis for analyses that charac ...

and

economic liberalism Economic liberalism is a political and economic ideology that supports a market economy based on individualism and private property in the means of production. Adam Smith is considered one of the primary initial writers on economic liberalism ...

. One of the first political campaigns of the new party was against the

euro currency The euro ( symbol: €; code: EUR) is the official currency of 19 out of the member states of the European Union (EU). This group of states is known as the eurozone or, officially, the euro area, and includes about 340 million citizens ...

. Soon after its foundation, Italy First participated in the process of enlargement of FdI, a party led by

Giorgia Meloni Giorgia Meloni (; born 15 January 1977) is an Italian politician who has been serving as the Prime Minister of Italy since 22 October 2022, the first woman to hold this position. A member of the Chamber of Deputies since 2006, she has led the ...

, through the "Workshop for Italy" and was finally integrated into FdI in March 2014. Italy First thus became a faction within FdI and Alemanno was one of the party's leading candidates in the

2014 European Parliament election The 2014 European Parliament election was held in the European Union, from 22 to 25 May 2014. It was the 8th parliamentary election since the first direct elections in 1979, and the first in which the European political parties fielded candid ...

: he obtained almost 45,000 personal votes in the

South South is one of the cardinal directions or Points of the compass, compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both east and west. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Pro ...

, but was not elected to the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it adopts ...

as FdI was below the 4% national threshold. In December 2014 Alemanno, who was mired in a

scandal A scandal can be broadly defined as the strong social reactions of outrage, anger, or surprise, when accusations or rumours circulate or appear for some reason, regarding a person or persons who are perceived to have transgressed in some way. Th ...

related to his tenure as mayor of Rome, and, consequently, Italy First left FdI. In October 2015, during an assembly of the "National Alliance Foundation" (the association in charge of administering the assets of the defunct party), Alemanno and his supporters, who wanted to form a larger right-wing party (including FdI), lost a vote on the entitlement of AN's symbol over the representatives of FdI, supported by former AN heavyweights who had remained in the PdL. As a result, Alemanno announced that he would create a "Movement for the United Right". That "movement" is National Action (AN), which was formed on 9 November 2015 by a group of former AN members, who had joined forces with Alemanno during the Foundation's assembly.

Leadership

*President:

(2013–2015) *Secretary:

Francesco Biava Francesco, the Italian (and original) version of the personal name "Francis", is the most common given name among males in Italy. Notable persons with that name include: People with the given name Francesco * Francesco I (disambiguation), sever ...

(2013–2015)

References

External links

Official website
(since January 2016 the website redirects to National Action's official website) Defunct political parties in Italy Political parties established in 2013 National conservative parties {{italy-party-stub