The Italian Anti-Tax Protest and Populism. The Italian Social Movement in the 1980s

Abstract

This essay examines the relationship between the Italian Social Movement (MSI) and populism through its anti-tax rhetoric in the 1980s. Focusing on the party’s opposition to fiscal reforms, especially Visentini’s, it shows how the MSI portrayed taxation as evidence of a corrupt party-state oppressing ordinary citizens. While not fully populist, the MSI adopted a semi-populist discourse that anticipated themes central to the crisis of Italy’s First Republic.