Editing Politics of Italy (section)

===First Republic: 1946–1994===
{{Main|Aftermath of World War II}}
{{Further|Iron Curtain|Origins of the Cold War|Cold War (1947–1953)}}
[[File:Alcide de Gasperi 2.jpg|thumb|[[Alcide De Gasperi]], the first republican [[Prime Minister of Italy]] and one of the [[Founding fathers of the European Union]]. He was Prime Minister from 1945 to 1953.]]

There have been frequent government turnovers since 1945, indeed there have been 66 governments in this time.<ref>"Pasta and fries".''The Economist'' (24 February – 2 March 2007 Issue) Volume 382, Number 8517</ref> The dominance of the [[Christian Democracy (Italy)|Christian Democratic]] party (DC) during much of the post-war period lent continuity and comparative stability to Italy's political situation,<ref name="Almagisti 2015">{{cite encyclopedia |last=Almagisti |first=Marco |year=2015 |title=Subculture politiche territoriali e capitale sociale |url=https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/subculture-politiche-territoriali-e-capitale-sociale_%28L%27Italia-e-le-sue-Regioni%29/ |encyclopedia=[[Enciclopedia Treccani]] |language=it |location=[[Rome]] |publisher=Treccani |series=L'Italia e le sue Regioni |access-date=10 September 2022}}</ref> mainly dominated by the attempt of keeping the [[Italian Communist Party]] (PCI) out of power in order to maintain [[Cold War]] equilibrium in the region (see [[May 1947 crisis]]).<ref>Frederic Spotts and Theodor Wieser, eds. ''Italy: A Difficult Democracy: A Survey of Italian Politics'' . (1986)</ref>

The Italian Communists were in the government only in the national unity governments before 1948, in which their party's secretary [[Palmiro Togliatti]] was minister of Justice. After the [[1948 Italian general election|first democratic elections]] with [[universal suffrage]] in 1948 in which the Christian Democracy and their allies won against the popular front of the Italian Communist and [[Italian Socialist Party|Socialist]] (PSI) parties, the Italian Communist Party never returned in the government.

The system had been nicknamed the "imperfect bipolarism", referring to more proper bipolarism in other [[Western countries]] (such as [[France]], [[Germany]], the [[United Kingdom]], and the [[United States]]) where right-wing and left-wing parties alternated in government. Meanwhile, rising post-war tensions between right-wing and left-wing parties in Italy brought to the [[radicalization]] and proliferation of numerous [[Left-wing terrorism|far-left]] and [[Right-wing terrorism|far-right]] [[terrorist organization]]s throughout the country.<ref name="Drake 2021">{{cite book |last=Drake |first=Richard |year=2021 |chapter=The Two Faces of Italian Terrorism: 1969–1974 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xG0cEAAAQBAJ&pg=PT36 |title=The Revolutionary Mystique and Terrorism in Contemporary Italy |location=[[Bloomington, Indiana]] |publisher=[[Indiana University Press]] |edition=2nd |pages=36–53 |isbn=9780253057143 |lccn=2020050360}}</ref><ref name="Martin-Prager 2019">{{cite book |author1-last=Martin |author1-first=Gus |author1-link=C. Augustus Martin |author2-last=Prager |author2-first=Fynnwin |year=2019 |chapter=Part II: The Terrorists – Terror from Below: Terrorism by Dissidents |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=f8p-DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA189 |title=Terrorism: An International Perspective |location=[[Thousand Oaks, California]] |publisher=[[SAGE Publications]] |pages=189–193 |isbn=9781526459954 |lccn=2018948259}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Clark |first=Simon |year=2018 |chapter=Post-War Italian Politics: Stasis and Chaos |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=z2V9DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA30 |title=Terror Vanquished: The Italian Approach to Defeating Terrorism |location=[[Arlington County, Virginia]] |publisher=Center for Security Policy Studies at the [[Schar School of Policy and Government]] ([[George Mason University]]) |pages=30–42, 48–59 |isbn=978-1-7329478-0-1 |lccn=2018955266}}</ref><ref name="Balz 2015">{{cite book |author-last=Balz |author-first=Hanno |year=2015 |chapter=Section III: Terrorism in the Twentieth Century – Militant Organizations in Western Europe in the 1970s and 1980s |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3ZCsBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA297 |editor-last=Law |editor-first=Randall D. |title=The Routledge History of Terrorism |location=[[New York City|New York]] and [[London]] |publisher=[[Routledge]] |edition=1st |series=Routledge Histories |pages=297–314 |isbn=9780367867058 |lccn=2014039877}}</ref>

====Entrance of the Socialists to the government====
The main event in the First Republic in the 1960s was the inclusion of the Italian Socialist Party in the government after the reducing edge of the [[Christian Democracy (Italy)|Christian Democracy]] (DC) had forced them to accept this alliance. In 1960, attempts to incorporate the [[Italian Social Movement]] (MSI) within the [[Tambroni Cabinet]], a [[Neo-fascism|neo-fascist]]<ref name="Ceccarini-Newell 2019">{{cite book |author1-last=Newell |author1-first=James L. |author2-last=Ceccarini |author2-first=Luigi |year=2019 |chapter=Introduction: The Paradoxical Election |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BJ6SDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA4 |editor1-last=Newell |editor1-first=James L. |editor2-last=Ceccarini |editor2-first=Luigi |title=The Italian General Election of 2018: Italy in Uncharted Territory |location=[[Cham, Switzerland]] |publisher=[[Palgrave Macmillan]] |page=4 |doi=10.1007/978-3-030-13617-8_1 |isbn=978-3-030-13617-8}}</ref> far-right party and the only surviving political remnant of the [[Republican Fascist Party]] that was disbanded in the aftermath of the [[Italian Civil War]] (1943–1945), led to short-lived [[riot]]s in the summer of the same year;<ref name="Levy-Bessel 2000">{{cite book |author-last=Levy |author-first=Carl |author-link=Carl Levy (political scientist) |year=2000 |orig-year=1996 |chapter=From Fascism to "Post-Fascists": Italian Roads to Modernity |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aJvzjv12CkcC&pg=PA188 |editor-last=Bessel |editor-first=Richard |editor-link=Richard Bessel |title=Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany: Comparisons and Contrasts |location=[[Cambridge]] |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |pages=188–190 |isbn=9780521477116}}</ref> as a consequence, [[Fernando Tambroni]] was eventually replaced by the Christian Democrat politician [[Amintore Fanfani]] as Prime Minister of Italy.

[[Aldo Moro]], a relatively left-leaning Christian Democrat, inspired the alliance between the Christian Democracy and the Italian Socialist Party. He would later try to include the Italian Communist Party as well with a deal called the "[[Historic Compromise|historic compromise]]". However, this attempt at compromise was stopped by the [[kidnapping and murder of Aldo Moro]] in 1978 by the [[Red Brigades]] (BR), an extremist [[Left-wing terrorism|left-wing terrorist organization]].<ref name="Rossi 2021">{{cite journal |author-last=Rossi |author-first=Federica |date=April 2021 |title=The failed amnesty of the 'years of lead' in Italy: Continuity and transformations between (de)politicization and punitiveness |editor-last=Treiber |editor-first=Kyle |journal=[[European Journal of Criminology]] |volume=20 |issue=2 |pages=381–400 |location=[[Los Angeles]] and [[London]] |publisher=[[SAGE Publications]] on behalf of the [[European Society of Criminology]] |doi=10.1177/14773708211008441 |doi-access=free |issn=1741-2609 |s2cid=234835036 |quote=The [[Years of Lead (Italy)|1970s in Italy]] were characterized by the persistence and prolongation of political and social unrest that many Western countries experienced during the late 1960s. The decade saw the multiplication of [[Far-left politics|far-left]] [[Terrorism in Italy|extra-parliamentary organizations]], the presence of a [[militant]] [[Far-right politics in Italy|far right movement]], and an upsurge in the use of politically motivated violence and state repressive measures. The increasing militarization and the use of political violence, from [[sabotage]] and damage to property, to [[kidnapping]]s and [[Targeted killing|targeted assassinations]], were justified by left-wing groups both as necessary means to achieve a revolutionary project and as defences against the threat of a neo-fascist coup.}}</ref>

The Italian Communist Party was at this point the largest communist party in [[Western Europe]], and remained such for the rest of its existence. Their ability to attract members was largely due to their pragmatic stance, especially their rejection of political extremism and to their growing independence from the [[Soviet Union]] (see [[Eurocommunism]]). The Italian Communist Party was especially strong in regions like [[Emilia-Romagna]] and [[Tuscany]], where communists had been elected to stable government positions.<ref name="Almagisti 2015"/> This practical political experience may have contributed to their taking a more pragmatic approach to politics.<ref>Joan Barth Urban, '' Moscow and the Italian Communist Party: From Togliatti to Berlinguer'' (IB Tauris, 1986).</ref>

====Years of Lead====<!-- This section is linked from [[Italian Social Movement]] -->
{{See also|Strategy of tension|Years of Lead (Italy)}}

On 12 December 1969, a roughly decade-long period of extremist left- and right-wing political terrorism, known as The Years of Lead (as in the metal of bullets, {{langx|it|anni di piombo}}), began with the [[Piazza Fontana bombing]] in the center of [[Milan]]. Neofascist [[Vincenzo Vinciguerra]] later declared the bombing to be an attempt to push the Italian state to declare a [[state of emergency]] in order to lead to a more authoritative state. A bomb left in a bank killed about twenty and was initially blamed on [[anarchism|anarchist]] [[Giuseppe Pinelli]]. This accusation was hotly contested by left-wing circles, especially the [[Maoist]] Student Movement, which had support in those years from some students of Milan's [[university|universities]] and who considered the bombing to have all the marks of a fascist operation. Their guess proved correct, but only after many years of difficult investigations.<ref>David Moss, ''The Politics of Left-Wing Violence in Italy, 1969-85'' (1989)</ref>

[[File:Strage di bologna funerali 1.jpg|thumb|Funerals of the victims of the 2 August 1980 [[Bologna massacre]], the deadliest attack ever perpetrated in Italy during the Years of Lead]]
The strategy of tension attempted to blame the left for bombings carried out by right-wing terrorists. Fascist "black terrorists", such as ''[[Ordine Nuovo]]'' and the ''[[National Vanguard (Italy)|Avanguardia Nazionale]]'', were in the 1980s and 1990s found to be responsible for several terrorist attacks. On the other extreme of the political spectrum, the leftist Red Brigades carried out assassinations against specific persons, but were not responsible for any blind bombings. The Red Brigades killed socialist journalist [[Walter Tobagi]] and in their most famous operation kidnapped and assassinated [[Aldo Moro]], president of the [[Christian Democracy (Italy)|Christian Democracy]], who was trying to involve the [[Italian Communist Party|Communist Party]] in the government through the ''[[historic compromise|compromesso storico]]'' ("historic compromise"), to which the radical left as well as Washington were opposed.<ref>Robert C. Meade Jr.. ''Red Brigades: The Story of Italian Terrorism'' (1989)</ref>

The last and largest of the bombings, known as the [[Bologna massacre]], destroyed the city's railway station in 1980. This was found to be a neofascist bombing, in which [[Propaganda Due]] was involved. On 24 October 1990, Prime Minister [[Giulio Andreotti]] (DC) revealed to the Parliament the existence of [[Gladio]], [[NATO]]'s secret "stay-behind" networks which stocked weapons in order to facilitate an armed resistance in case of a communist coup. In 2000, a Parliament Commission report from the [[The Olive Tree (Italy)|Olive Tree]] (centre-left) coalition concluded that the strategy of tension followed by Gladio had been supported by the United States to "stop the PCI and, to a certain degree, the PSI [Italian Socialist Party] from reaching executive power in the country".<ref>Leonard Weinberg,  "Italian neo‐fascist terrorism: A comparative perspective." ''Terrorism and Political Violence'' 7.1 (1995): 221-238.</ref>

====1980s====
[[File:Milano - Palazzo di Giustizia - panoramio - MarkusMark (1).jpg|thumb|[[Milan]]'s Palace of Justice, where the investigation of ''[[mani pulite]]'' began.]]
With the end of the lead years, the Communist Party gradually increased their votes under the leadership of [[Enrico Berlinguer]]. The [[Italian Socialist Party]], led by [[Bettino Craxi]], became more and more critical of the communists and of the [[Soviet Union]]; Craxi himself pushed in favor of [[Ronald Reagan]]'s positioning of [[Pershing II]] missiles in Italy, a move many communists strongly disapproved of.

As the Socialist Party moved to more moderate positions, it attracted many reformists, some of whom were irritated by the failure of the communists to modernize. Increasingly, many on the left began to see the communists as old and out of fashion while Craxi and the socialists seemed to represent a new liberal socialism. The Communist Party surpassed the Christian Democrats only in the [[1984 European Parliament election in Italy|European elections of 1984]], held barely two days after Berlinguer's death, a passing that likely drew sympathy from many voters. The election of 1984 was to be the only time the Christian Democrats did not emerge as the largest party in a nationwide election in which they participated.

In 1987, one year after the [[Chernobyl disaster]] following a referendum in that year, a nuclear phase-out was commenced. Italy's [[List of nuclear reactors#Italy|four nuclear power plants]] were closed down, the last in 1990. A moratorium on the construction of new plants, originally in effect from 1987 until 1993, has since been extended indefinitely.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://energytrends.pnl.gov/italy/it004.htm |title=Italy - National Energy Policy and Overview |access-date=2005-08-17 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050906154331/http://energytrends.pnl.gov/italy/it004.htm |archive-date=6 September 2005 }}</ref>

In these years, [[political corruption|corruption]] began to be more extensive, a development that would be exposed in the early 1990s and nicknamed ''[[Tangentopoli]]''. With the ''[[mani pulite]]'' investigation, starting just one year after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the whole power structure faltered and seemingly indestructible parties, such as the Christian Democrats and the Socialist Party, disbanded whereas the Communist Party changed its name to the [[Democratic Party of the Left]] and took the role of the Socialist Party as the main [[Social democracy|social democratic]] party in Italy. What was to follow was then called the transition to the Second Republic.