Topic summary
Brothers of Italy

Brothers of Italy (Italian: Fratelli d'Italia, FdI) is a national-conservative and right-wing populistpolitical 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 variously 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, and nativist. 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 was led by Meloni from 2020 to 2025. FdI proposes a "confederal Europe" of nations as opposed to a "federal Europe".